CN115603875A

CN115603875A - Control channel configuration method and communication device

Info

Publication number: CN115603875A
Application number: CN202110769641.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 冯淑兰; 张阳阳
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-07-07
Filing date: 2021-07-07
Publication date: 2023-01-13
Also published as: WO2023279974A1

Abstract

The application provides a control channel configuration method and a communication device, wherein the method comprises the following steps: the network device sends a first instruction to a terminal device, wherein the first instruction is used for indicating a first search space of the terminal device, and the first instruction comprises a length N of a PDCCH period of the first search space and a length L of a PDCCH continuous monitoring time in the first search space. With this first instruction, the network device may indicate a length N of the PDCCH period that is synchronized with the arrival period of the XR traffic data packets. And the network equipment sends a second instruction to the terminal equipment, wherein the second instruction is used for indicating the terminal equipment to activate the first search space. Through the second instruction, the network device may indicate the PDCCH initial monitoring time slot synchronized with the packet arrival time of the XR service data packet, which is beneficial to reducing the transmission delay and power consumption waste of the XR service data packet.

Description

Control channel configuration method and communication device

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a control channel configuration method and a communication apparatus.

Background

In cellular communication systems, physical resources for wireless communication are typically allocated by a scheduling node (e.g., a network device) to scheduled nodes (e.g., terminal devices). Taking a New Radio (NR) standard defined by the third generation partnership project 3GPP standard as an example, in the system, a network device determines physical resources, a modulation and coding scheme, and the like for communicating with a terminal device, and sends a signaling including the physical resources, the modulation and coding scheme, and the like to the terminal device through a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH). Since the network device generally cannot accurately determine in advance when to transmit the control signaling to the terminal device, the terminal device needs to frequently monitor the PDCCH in order to receive the control signaling transmitted by the network device.

In order to reduce power consumption caused by frequent PDCCH monitoring by the terminal device, the network device may define one or more search space sets (search space sets) for the terminal device, where the search space sets include PDCCH monitoring periods (MOs), and the terminal device may perform PDCCH monitoring on MOs in the search space sets that are configured by the network device and need to be monitored.

However, when the current PDCCH search space is used for extended reality (XR) service, video frames of the XR service are transmitted periodically, the period of the video frames is the reciprocal of a frame rate, the frame rate is the number of frames contained in each second of the video frames, and is expressed in frames per second (fps), the video frame rate is 24fps at the lowest, and when the frame rate is lower than 24fps, human eyes feel obvious hiton. Common video frame rates include 30fps, 60fps, 90fps, and 120fps. The current periodic configuration of the PDCCH search space is not matched with the XR service, which causes the delay of XR service data to increase, and affects the user experience. In order not to affect the user experience, one possible approach is to set a very short PDCCH monitoring period, but the short PDCCH monitoring period will cause the power consumption of the terminal device to increase.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a control channel configuration method and a communication device, which are beneficial to reducing the transmission delay of a periodic service such as an XR service data packet and the power consumption waste of PDCCH detection.

In a first aspect, a control channel configuration method is provided, where an execution subject of the method may be a network device, and may also be a chip applied in the network device. The following description will be made taking an example in which the execution subject is a network device. The network equipment sends a first instruction to the terminal equipment, wherein the first instruction is used for indicating a first search space of the terminal equipment, the first instruction comprises a length N of a PDCCH period of the first search space and a length L of a PDCCH continuous monitoring time in the first search space, L is greater than or equal to 1, N is greater than L. And the network equipment sends a second instruction to the terminal equipment, wherein the second instruction is used for indicating the terminal equipment to activate the first search space.

In this embodiment, the network device may configure, for the terminal device, the length N of the PDCCH period and the length L of the PDCCH duration monitoring time of the first search space through the first instruction, and instruct the terminal device to activate the first search space through the second instruction, where the activation time is determined according to the arrival time of the XR service packet.

In one possible design, the first instruction is further configured to indicate M PDCCH monitoring clusters in the PDCCH period, where the M PDCCH monitoring clusters correspond to M sub-periods, a sum of lengths of the M sub-periods is equal to a length N of the PDCCH period, a length of PDCCH monitoring duration time of each PDCCH monitoring cluster in the M PDCCH monitoring clusters is L, and M is greater than 1.

In this embodiment, the network device may configure different PDCCH monitoring sub-periods for multiple clusters of the terminal device according to the period of the XR service, where the sub-periods of the clusters are matched with the period of the XR service data packet, which is beneficial to reducing transmission delay of the XR service data packet and waste of power consumption for detecting the PDCCH.

In one possible design, the second instruction is further to indicate a slot offset O of the first search space _s1 The time slot offset O _s1 A PDCCH starting monitoring slot for determining the first search space.

In the embodiment of the present application, the slot offset O _s1 The method can be determined according to the arrival time of the XR service data packet, so that the terminal equipment can start PDCCH monitoring when the XR service data packet arrives, the waiting time delay of the XR service data packet is favorably reduced, and the increase of terminal power consumption caused by unnecessary PDCCH monitoring is avoided.

In one possible design, the first instructions are further to indicate (M-1) search spaces, the (M-1) search spaces having a length N of the same PDCCH period as the first search space, the (M-1) search spaces having a length L of PDCCH duration monitoring time within the same PDCCH period as the first search space, M being greater than 1; the first instructions further include PDCCH monitoring symbols, the first search space and the (M-1) search spaces having the same PDCCH monitoring symbols; the second instructions are also for instructing the terminal device to activate the (M-1) search spaces.

In this embodiment, the network device may configure M search spaces with association for the terminal device, where PDCCH periods of the M search spaces with association are matched with periods of XR service data packets, which is beneficial to reducing transmission delay of XR service data packets and waste of power consumption for detecting PDCCH.

In one possible design, the first instructions further indicate slot offsets for the first search space and the (M-1) search spaces, the M slot offset values being different; the second instructions are also for indicating a slot offset O of the first search space _s1 The time slot offset O _s1 PDCCH initial monitoring slots for determining the first search space and the (M-1) search spaces.

In the embodiment of the application, the search space group after combining the M search spaces including the first search space is matched with the XR service period, which is favorable for reducing the transmission delay of the XR service data packet and detecting the power consumption waste of the PDCCH, and meanwhile, the terminal device can start PDCCH monitoring when the XR service data packet arrives, which is favorable for reducing the waiting delay of the XR service data packet, and also avoids the increase of the terminal power consumption caused by unnecessary PDCCH monitoring.

In one possible design, the network device sends a third instruction to the terminal device at the kth time slot of the L continuous monitoring periods, where the third instruction is used to instruct the terminal device to stop detecting the PDCCH at the (k + 1) th time slot to the L time slot of the L continuous monitoring periods.

In this embodiment, the network device may send a third instruction to the terminal device, so as to adjust the duration of detecting the PDCCH by the terminal device, which is beneficial to reducing power consumption waste of detecting the PDCCH by the terminal device.

In a second aspect, a control channel configuration method is provided, where an execution subject of the method may be a terminal device, and may also be a chip applied in the terminal device. The following description will be given taking as an example that the execution main body is a terminal device. The terminal device receives a first instruction from the network device, wherein the first instruction is used for indicating a first search space of the terminal device, and the first instruction comprises a length N of a PDCCH period of the first search space and a PDCCH continuous monitoring time L in the first search space, wherein L is greater than or equal to 1, and N is greater than L. The terminal device receives a second instruction from the network device, wherein the second instruction is used for instructing the terminal device to activate the first search space. The terminal device detects the PDCCH in the PDCCH continuous monitoring time determined by the first search space based on the first instruction and the second instruction.

In this embodiment, the terminal device receives the first instruction and the second instruction, and detects the PDCCH in the first search space according to the first instruction and the second instruction, which is beneficial to reducing the transmission delay of the XR service data packet and the power consumption waste for detecting the PDCCH compared with a scheme in which the terminal device receives the configuration information of the first search space and immediately starts to detect the PDCCH.

In one possible design, the first instruction is further configured to indicate M PDCCH monitoring clusters in the PDCCH period, where the M PDCCH monitoring clusters correspond to M sub-periods, a sum of the lengths of the M sub-periods is equal to the length N of the PDCCH period, a PDCCH of each PDCCH monitoring cluster in the M PDCCH monitoring clusters continuously monitors a PDCCH monitoring cluster having a monitoring time length L, and M is greater than 1. And the terminal equipment detects the PDCCH according to the first instruction and the second instruction and in the PDCCH continuous monitoring time of the M PDCCH monitoring clusters in the first search space.

In the embodiment of the application, the sub-periods of the M PDCCH monitoring clusters are matched with the period of the XR service data packet, which is beneficial to reducing the transmission delay of the XR service data packet and the waste of power consumption of the terminal equipment for detecting the PDCCH.

In one possible design, the detecting, by the terminal device, the PDCCH for the PDCCH monitoring duration of the M PDCCH monitoring clusters in the first search space according to the first instruction and the second instruction includes: the terminal device shifts the time slot according to the first search space _s1 And a sub-period of the PDCCH monitoring cluster, determining the PDCCH initial monitoring time slot; the terminal device monitors the PDCCH of the first search space from the PDCCH initial monitoring time slot.

In this embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may start to detect the PDCCH at the determined PDCCH starting monitoring time slot, and the PDCCH starting monitoring time slot may be aligned with the packet arrival time of the XR service data packet, which is beneficial to reducing the transmission delay of the XR service data packet and the waste of power consumption for detecting the PDCCH.

In one possible design, the first instructions are further to indicate (M-1) search spaces, the (M-1) search spaces having a length N of a same PDCCH period as the first search space, the (M-1) search spaces having a duration monitoring time L of a PDCCH within the same PDCCH period as the first search space, M being greater than 1. The first instructions also include PDCCH monitoring symbols, the first search space and the (M-1) search spaces having the same PDCCH monitoring symbols. The second instructions are also for instructing the terminal device to activate the (M-1) search spaces. And the terminal equipment detects the PDCCH according to the first instruction and the second instruction and the PDCCH continuous monitoring time determined by the first search space and the (M-1) search spaces.

In one possible design, the first instructions are further to indicate slot offsets for the first search space and the (M-1) search spaces, the M slot offset values being different from each other. The second instructions are also for indicating a slot offset O of the first search space _s1 The time slot offset O _s1 And also for determining PDCCH starting monitoring slots for the first search space and the (M-1) search spaces.

In one possible design, the terminal device detects the PDCCH for the monitoring time duration determined in the first search space and the (M-1) search spaces according to the first instruction and the second instruction, and includes: the first instructions also indicate slot offsets for the first search space and the (M-1) search spaces, the M slot offset values being different from each other. The terminal device shifts the time slot according to the first search space _s1 And the time slot offset of the M search spaces, and determining PDCCH initial monitoring time slots of the first search space and the (M-1) search spaces. The terminal device monitors the first search space and the (M-1) search spaces starting from the PDCCH initial monitoring slot. Therefore, the search space group after the M search spaces including the first search space are combined is matched with the XR service period, the transmission delay of an XR service data packet and the power consumption waste of PDCCH detection are favorably reduced, meanwhile, the terminal equipment can start PDCCH monitoring when the XR service data packet reaches, the waiting delay of the XR service data packet is favorably reduced, and the power consumption increase of the terminal caused by unnecessary PDCCH monitoring is also avoided.

In one possible design, the terminal device receives a third instruction from the network device at a kth time slot of the L continuous monitoring times, where the third instruction is used to instruct the terminal device to stop detecting the PDCCH in the L continuous monitoring times; the terminal device stops detecting the PDCCH from the (k + 1) th slot to the L slots in the L continuous monitoring time periods based on the third instruction.

In the embodiment of the application, the terminal device can stop detecting the PDCCH according to the instruction of the network device, so that the power consumption waste of the terminal device for detecting the PDCCH is reduced.

In a third aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, and beneficial effects may be found in the description of the first aspect and will not be described herein again. The communication device has the functionality to implement the actions in the method instance of the first aspect described above. The functions can be realized by hardware, and the functions can also be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above-described functions.

In one possible design, the communication device includes: the terminal equipment comprises a determining module, a sending module and a monitoring module, wherein the determining module is used for determining the configuration of a first search space of the terminal equipment, the sending module is used for sending a first instruction to the terminal equipment, the first instruction is used for indicating the first search space of the terminal equipment, and the first instruction comprises the length N of a PDCCH period of the first search space and the length L of a PDCCH continuous monitoring time in the first search space, L is greater than or equal to 1, N is greater than L; and sending a second instruction to the terminal device, wherein the second instruction is used for indicating the terminal device to activate the first search space. The modules may perform corresponding functions in the method example of the first aspect, for specific reference, detailed description of the method example is given, and details are not repeated here.

In a fourth aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, and advantageous effects may be found in the description of the second aspect and will not be described herein again. The communication device has the functionality to implement the actions in the method example of the second aspect described above. The functions can be realized by hardware, and the functions can also be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions described above.

In one possible design, the communication device includes: a receiving module, configured to receive a first instruction from a network device, where the first instruction is used to indicate a first search space, and the first instruction includes a length N of a PDCCH cycle of the first search space and a PDCCH duration monitoring time L in the first search space, where L is greater than or equal to 1, and N is greater than L; and receiving a second instruction from the network device, the second instruction indicating activation of the first search space. And the processing module is used for detecting the PDCCH in the PDCCH continuous monitoring time determined by the first search space based on the first instruction and the second instruction. The modules may perform corresponding functions in the method example of the second aspect, for specific reference, detailed description of the method example is given, and details are not repeated here.

In a fifth aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, where the communication apparatus may be the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiment, or a chip disposed in the terminal device. The communication device comprises a communication interface, a processor and optionally a memory. Wherein the memory is used for storing computer programs or instructions, the processor is coupled with the memory and the communication interface, and when the processor executes the computer programs or instructions, the communication device is caused to execute the method executed by the terminal equipment in the method embodiment.

In a sixth aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, where the communication apparatus may be the network device in the above method embodiment, or a chip disposed in the network device. The communication device comprises a communication interface, a processor and optionally a memory. Wherein the memory is used for storing a computer program or instructions, and the processor is coupled with the memory and the communication interface, and when the processor executes the computer program or instructions, the communication device is caused to execute the method executed by the network device in the method embodiment.

In a seventh aspect, a computer program product is provided, the computer program product comprising: computer program code which, when run, causes the method performed by the terminal device in the above aspects to be performed.

In an eighth aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising: computer program code which, when executed, causes the method performed by the network device in the above aspects to be performed.

In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a chip system, which includes a processor, and is configured to implement the functions of the terminal device in the methods of the above aspects. In one possible design, the system-on-chip further includes a memory for storing program instructions and/or data. The chip system may be formed by a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices.

In a tenth aspect, the present application provides a chip system, which includes a processor for implementing the functions of the network device in the method of the above aspects. In one possible design, the system-on-chip further includes a memory for storing program instructions and/or data. The chip system may be formed by a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices.

In an eleventh aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program that, when executed, implements the method performed by the terminal device in the above-described aspects.

In a twelfth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program which, when executed, implements the method performed by the network device in the above-described aspects.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a communication network architecture in a communication system;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of another communication network architecture in a communication system;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of yet another communication network architecture in a communication system;

FIG. 5 is a time domain diagram of a PDCCH MO;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a model of an XR service;

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of PDCCH search space configuration for XR service;

fig. 8 is a PDCCH search space configuration diagram for another XR service;

FIG. 9 is a diagram of PDCCH search space duration monitoring time;

fig. 10 is a diagram of another PDCCH search space duration monitoring time;

fig. 11 is a schematic flowchart of a control channel configuration method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is a schematic diagram of a PDCCH period according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a first search space configuration according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating activation of a first search space according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 15 is a diagram of a third search space provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating another example of activating a first search space according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 17 is a schematic diagram of adjusting a monitoring duration in a PDCCH monitoring cluster according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 18 is a schematic diagram of scheduling multiple PDSCHs by using one DCI provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 19 is a schematic diagram of another DCI for scheduling multiple PDSCHs according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 20 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of adjusting a monitoring duration in a PDCCH monitoring cluster;

fig. 21 is a schematic diagram of adjusting a monitoring duration in a PDCCH monitoring cluster according to another embodiment of the present application;

fig. 22 is a schematic flow chart of another control channel configuring method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 23 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 24 is a schematic block diagram of another communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 25 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 26 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 27 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solution in the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system 100. As shown in fig. 1, the communication system 100 may include a network device 110 and at least one terminal device 120, and may also include a terminal device 130.

Optionally, the communication system further comprises a core network device 140.

The terminal equipment is connected with the network equipment in a wireless mode, and the network equipment is connected with the core network equipment in a wireless or wired mode. The core network device and the network device may be separate physical devices, or the function of the core network device and the logic function of the network device may be integrated on the same physical device, or a physical device may be integrated with a part of the function of the core network device and a part of the function of the network device. The terminal equipment may be fixed or mobile. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the number of network devices and terminal devices included in the mobile communication system.

Terminal equipment in the embodiments of the present application may refer to user equipment, access terminals, subscriber units, subscriber stations, mobile stations, remote terminals, mobile devices, user terminals, wireless communication devices, user agents, or user devices. The terminal in the embodiment of the present application may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer (pad), a computer with a wireless transceiving function, a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal, an Augmented Reality (AR) terminal, a Mixed Reality (MR) terminal, an extended reality (XR) terminal, a holographic display terminal, a wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in unmanned driving (self driving), or other processing devices connected to a wireless modem, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, a terminal in a 5G network, or a terminal in a future evolution network, etc.

In addition, the terminal device may also be a terminal device in an internet of things (IoT) system. The IoT is an important component of future information technology development, and is mainly technically characterized in that articles are connected with a network through a communication technology, so that an intelligent network with man-machine interconnection and object interconnection is realized. The specific form of the terminal device is not limited in the present application.

It should be understood that in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may be an apparatus for implementing a function of the terminal device, or may be an apparatus capable of supporting the terminal device to implement the function, such as a chip system, and the apparatus may be installed in the terminal. In the embodiment of the present application, the chip system may be composed of a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

The network device in the embodiment of the present application may be any device having a wireless transceiving function. Such devices include, but are not limited to: an evolved Node B (eNB), a Radio Network Controller (RNC), a Node B (Node base, NB), a Base Station Controller (BSC), a base transceiver station (base transceiver station, BTS), a home base station (e.g., home evolved Node B, or home Node B, HNB), a Base Band Unit (BBU), an Access Point (AP), a wireless relay Node, a wireless backhaul Node, a Transmission Point (TP), or a transmission point (TRP) in a wireless fidelity (WIFI) system, and the like, and may also be 5G, such as NR, a gbb, or a transmission point (TRP), in a system, and one or a group (including multiple antennas) of a base station in a 5G system may also constitute a panel of antennas, or a panel of antennas, and may also constitute a panel of a network, such as a distributed Node (RNC), or a distributed Node (Node B), or a base station (BBU), and a wireless relay Node (HNB, TP), or a wireless backhaul Node (BBU).

It should be understood that, in the embodiment of the present application, a network device may be an apparatus for implementing a function of the network device, and may also be an apparatus capable of supporting the network device to implement the function, for example, a system on chip, and the apparatus may be installed in the network device.

It should also be understood that the network device and the terminal device in the embodiments of the present application may be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, hand-held or vehicle-mounted; or deployed on the surface; or on aerial airplanes, balloons, and satellites. The embodiment of the application does not limit the application scenarios of the network device and the terminal device.

The technical solution of the embodiments of the present application may be applied to various communication systems, such as a fifth generation (5 th generation,5 g) system or a future evolution communication system, and a vehicle-to-other device (vehicle-to-X V2X), where the V2X may include a vehicle-to-Internet (V2N), a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), a vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), a vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P), etc., a long term evolution (LTE-V) technology for vehicle-to-vehicle communication, an Internet of vehicle (IoT), a machine-to-machine communication (MTC), an Internet of things (Internet of things, ioT), a long term evolution (long term evolution) technology for machine-to-machine (LTE-M), a machine-to-machine (M-to-M), a machine-to-machine (M2D), a device (M2D, etc.

Fig. 2 illustrates a communication network architecture in the communication system 100 provided by the present application, to which the embodiments provided subsequently are applicable. The first network device is a source network device (or called as a working network device or a serving network device) of a terminal device (hereinafter, described with UE as an example), and the second network device is a target network device (or called as a standby network device) of the UE, that is, a network device that provides service for the UE after handover. It should be noted that in this application, "failure" may be understood as a failure of a network device and/or an inability to provide service to one or more UEs for other reasons, which is simply referred to as failure. The "handover" in this application refers to handover of a network device serving a UE, and is not limited to "cell handover". For convenience of description, the network device is taken as a base station for example. The "handover" may refer to a handover due to a change in a base station serving the UE. For example, when a source base station of the UE fails, the UE is served by a backup base station. For another example, during the process of switching the UE from the source base station to communicate with another base station, the target base station after the switching provides service for the UE. The accessed cells before and after the UE is switched can be changed or not. It is to be understood that the standby network device is a relative concept, e.g., with respect to one UE, base station 2 is the standby network device of base station 1, and with respect to another UE, base station 1 is the standby network device of base station 2.

The first network device and the second network device may be two different devices, e.g., the first network device and the second network device are two different base stations. Optionally, the first network device and the second network device may also be two sets of function modules in the same device. The functional modules may be hardware modules, or software modules, or both hardware modules and software modules. For example, the first network device and the second network device are located in the same base station, and are two different functional modules in the base station. In one implementation, the first network device and the second network device are not transparent to the UE. The UE, when interacting with the respective network device, is able to know which network device it is interacting with at all. In another implementation, the first network device and the second network device are transparent to the UE. The UE is able to communicate with the network devices but does not know which of the two network devices to interact with. Alternatively, it may be that only one network device is considered for the UE. The first network device and the second network device may not be transparent to the UE, or may be transparent. In the following description, the first network device, the second network device, and the terminal device (taking UE as an example) may be the first network device in the network architecture shown in fig. 2, and the step indicated by a dotted line in the drawings corresponding to the embodiments of the present application is an optional step, which is not described in detail in the following text.

Fig. 3 illustrates another communication network architecture in the communication system 100 provided by the present application. As shown in fig. 3, the communication system includes a Core Network (CN) and a Radio Access Network (RAN). Wherein the network equipment (e.g., base stations) in the RAN includes baseband devices and radio frequency devices. The baseband device may be implemented by one or more nodes, and the radio frequency device may be implemented independently as a remote device, integrated into the baseband device, or partially integrated into the baseband device. Network devices in a RAN may include Centralized Units (CUs) and Distributed Units (DUs), which may be centrally controlled by one CU. The CU and the DU may be divided according to the functions of the protocol layers of the radio network provided therein, for example, the functions of the PDCP layer and the above protocol layers are provided in the CU, and the functions of the protocol layers below the PDCP layer, for example, the functions of the RLC layer and the MAC layer, are provided in the DU. It should be noted that this division of the protocol layers is only an example, and may be divided in other protocol layers. The radio frequency device may be remote, not placed in the DU, or integrated in the DU, or partially remote and partially integrated in the DU, which is not limited in this application.

Fig. 4 illustrates yet another communication network architecture in the communication system 100 provided by the present application. With respect to the architecture shown in fig. 3, the Control Plane (CP) and the User Plane (UP) of a CU may also be separated and implemented as separate entities, respectively a control plane CU entity (CU-CP entity) and a user plane CU entity (CU-UP entity). In the network architecture, the signaling generated by the CU may be sent to the UE through the DU, or the signaling generated by the UE may be sent to the CU through the DU. The DU may pass through the UE or CU directly through protocol layer encapsulation without parsing the signaling. In the network architecture, the CUs may be divided into network devices on the RAN side and the CUs may be divided into network devices on the CN side, which is not limited in the present application.

The following provides a detailed description of the related terms referred to in this application.

1. PDCCH search space

In a fifth generation mobile communication technology (5 g) defined by the 3GPP standard, a scheduling node may determine a physical resource and/or a modulation and coding scheme, etc. for communicating with a scheduled node, and transmit a signaling including the communication resource and/or the communication and coding scheme, etc. to the scheduled node through a PDCCH. One scheduling node may serve one or more scheduled nodes.

In this embodiment of the present application, a scheduling node may also be referred to as a network device, and a scheduled node may also be referred to as a terminal device. The following description will be made taking a network device and a terminal device as examples.

It should be understood that the scheduling node in the embodiment of the present application may also be a terminal device having a scheduling function.

Considering the randomness of packets of communication data, a scheduling node (e.g., a base station) may define one or more search space sets for a scheduled node, where the search space sets are a set of PDCCH monitoring periods (PDCCH MOs for short), and a UE may perform PDCCH monitoring on MOs in a configured search space set that needs to be monitored by the UE. And the scheduling node sends the configuration of the search space of the scheduled node to the scheduled node through a high-level signaling, and after receiving the configuration information of the search space, the scheduled node performs PDCCH monitoring on the time-frequency resource indicated by the configuration information of the search space. And in the time-frequency resource which is not indicated by the search space configuration information, the scheduled node does not perform PDCCH monitoring so as to save power consumption.

According to the current NR protocol 38.331, the search space comprises a monitongslotperiodiciandoffset cell defining a period (in slot) of the search space and a start Offset slot Offset of a monitored duration within the period, and a duration cell defining a duration monitoring time (i.e. a duration of consecutive slots) corresponding to the search space within the monitored duration of a search space, and a monitonmbs within the slot, in the form of a bitmap defining at which symbol the PDCCH starts to be monitored during a slot of the duration monitoring time. Each search space is associated to a control channel resource Set (CORESET) that defines the duration and frequency domain range of the PDCCH MO. The controlResourceSetId represents the identity of the CORSET associated with the search space.

Fig. 5 is a time domain diagram of a PDCCH MO. As shown in fig. 5, the monitoring period of the search space is N slots (slots), and L slots are continuously monitored from the starting slot determined by the monitoring offset O slot in one monitoring period. One or more PDCCH MOs may be included in one of the L persistent monitoring time slots, where each PDCCH MO has a time domain length of 1, 2, or 3 time domain symbols, and is determined by the number of time domain symbols of CORESET. Fig. 5 is introduced by taking an example that one monitoring slot includes 3 PDCCH MOs (shaded in fig. 5) and the PDCCH MO has a time domain length of 2 time domain symbols, and the starting monitoring symbol of the PDCCH MO is represented by a bit "1" through bit mapping.

Illustratively, the number of time domain symbols of the search space-associated CORESET is 2 (i.e., the time domain length of PDCCH MO is 2 time domain symbols), the bit-mapped symbols of the monitored symbols is 00001010001000, which means that the monitored symbols are symbol 4 (sym 4), symbol 6 (sym 6) and symbol 10 (sym 10), it should be understood that the first monitored symbol is numbered 0, i.e., sym 0. Under this configuration, taking the example that the terminal device monitors the 6 th slot (i.e., slot 5), the terminal device may detect the PDCCH at sym 4-sym 5, sym 6-sym 7, and sym 10-sym 11 of slot 5 in the 20 slots of the monitoring period. It should be understood that the first slot of the monitoring period is numbered 0, slot 0.

It should be understood that the current protocol is to encapsulate frequency domain resource information of the PDCCH and information such as the number of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols occupied by the time domain into a CORESET information element, and encapsulate the PDCCH start OFDM symbol and information such as a monitoring period, a monitoring slot, and an associated CORESET into a search space information element.

A search space is also referred to as a search space set, and a terminal device may have one or more search space sets. NR specifies that a terminal device can have a maximum of 10 search space sets within a bandwidth part (BWP), and thus a terminal device can have a maximum of 40 search space sets. For the sake of uniformity, we use the term search space.

2. XR service

In recent years, mobile services have been developed, and services such as Virtual Reality (VR), augmented Reality (AR), mixed Reality (MR), and extended reality (XR) have become mature. Compared with the traditional voice, web browsing, game and other services, the data packets of VR, AR, MR and XR are large, the transmission delay is required to be short, and the periodicity is certain. To meet the transmission requirements of this type of service, 3GPP has established a working group, which collectively refers to VR, AR, and MR as XR, and studies how to efficiently and energy-efficiently support XR services in a wireless communication network.

For convenience of description, VR, AR or MR traffic will be denoted below using XR traffic.

Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a model of an XR service. In fig. 6, according to the research of 3GPP, in combination with the model diagram of XR service shown in fig. 6, the XR service has the following characteristics:

(1) XR traffic has a certain periodicity, which is the inverse of the frame rate. Illustratively, the frame rate of XR traffic may be 30fps, 60fps, 90fps, or 1200fps, and the corresponding period may be 33.33ms, 16.67ms, 11.11ms, or 8.33ms in milliseconds (ms).

(2) The XR service data packet is bigger, the bit rate of the AR/VR video stream is 30Mbps or 45Mbps at 60fps, and the bit rate of the cloud game is 8Mbps, 30Mbps or 45Mbps at 60 fps.

(3) There is some jitter in the XR service packet arrival time. Illustratively, the jitter time may be [ -4,4] ms.

(4) XR services require extremely low transmission delays, as low as 5ms,10ms, or 15ms in the network.

As can be seen from the above description, the period of XR traffic may be 33.33ms, 6.67ms, 11.11ms, or 8.33ms, while in 3GPP NR, the period of PDCCH MO in one search space may be 1 slot, 2 slots, 3 slots, 4 slots, 8 slots, 10 slots, 16 slots, 20 slots, 40 slots, 80 slots, 160 slots, 320 slots, 640 slots, 1280 slots, or 2560 slots. In case of a subcarrier interval of 30kHz, 1 slot is 0.5ms, and thus, a period of the PDCCH MO may be 0.5ms, 1ms, 2ms, 2.5ms, 4ms, 5ms, 8ms, 10ms, 20ms, 40ms, 80ms, 160ms, 320ms, 640ms, or 1280ms in millisecond (ms) time unit. As can be seen, the existing protocol does not define a PDCCH MO period that exactly matches XR traffic. For simplicity, the following description is exemplified by the duration of 1 slot being 1ms.

Because the XR service and the PDCCH MO have inconsistent periods, the following problems may exist when the PDCCH search space is configured for the XR service:

(1) The starting position of the PDCCH MO indicated by the PDCCH search space configured in advance by the network device may not match the packet arrival time of the XR service data packet, which may increase the delay of the XR service data packet.

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of PDCCH search space configuration for XR service. For example, in fig. 7, the frame rate of an XR service packet is 60fps, the average arrival period of the corresponding packet is 16.67ms, the period of a PDCCH MO close to the frame is 10ms or 20ms, the period of the PDCCH MO may be set to 10ms, and if the duration of a1 slot is 1ms, that is, the period of the PDCCH MO is 10 slots, the slot offset of the PDCCH MO is set to 0 slot.

Assuming that the XR service data packet arrives at slot 6, as can be seen from fig. 7, the packet arrival time of the first XR service data packet is not synchronized with the first PDCCH MO, and the first XR service data packet needs to wait until the second PDCCH MO can transmit, and is delayed by 7ms. The second XR service packet needs to wait until the 4 th PDCCH MO can be transmitted, with a delay of 10.33ms. The third XR service packet needs to wait until the fifth PDCCH MO can be transmitted, delaying 3.67ms.

(2) The period of the current PDCCH search space cannot be well matched with the period of the XR service data packet, which increases the transmission delay of the XR service data packet and increases the energy consumption of the terminal device.

Fig. 8 is a diagram illustrating PDCCH search space configuration for another XR service. For example, in fig. 8, the frame rate of an XR service packet is 60fps, the average arrival period of the corresponding packet is 16.67ms, the period of a PDCCH MO close to the frame is 10ms or 20ms, the period of the PDCCH MO may be set to 10ms, if the duration of 1 slot is 1ms, the period of the PDCCH MO is 10 slots, and if the duration of 1 slot is 0.5ms, the period of the PDCCH MO is 20 slots.

As can be seen from fig. 8, the first PDCCH MO is time-synchronized with the first XR service data packet, and after the second XR service data packet arrives, it needs to wait 3.33ms for the third PDCCH MO to transmit, and after the third XR service data packet arrives, it needs to wait 6.67ms for the fifth PDCCH MO to transmit. Therefore, the transmission delay of the XR service data packet is increased, and in the transmission process, the second PDCCH MO and the fourth PDCCH MO do not have data to be sent, namely 2 of the 5 PDCCH MOs do not have data to be transmitted, 2/5 of PDCCH processing energy consumption is wasted by the terminal equipment, and the energy conservation of the terminal equipment is not facilitated.

(3) The arrival time of the XR service data packet is jittered, and in order to reduce the time delay of the XR service data packet, the continuous monitoring time of the PDCCH needs to be configured to be larger than or equal to the jittering range. For example, the duration monitoring time of the PDCCH is 6 timeslots, and the XR service data packet is transmitted in 1-2 timeslots, the terminal device also needs to detect the PDCCH in the remaining duration monitoring time until the configured duration monitoring time of the PDCCH is finished, which wastes power consumption of the terminal device.

Fig. 9 is a diagram of PDCCH search space duration monitoring time. Here, a symbol 1 indicates a time slot in which PDCCH monitoring is performed, and a symbol 2 indicates a time slot in which PDCCH is detected. Illustratively, the arrival time of the XR service data packet has a jitter of [ -4,4] ms, and in order to be able to transmit the data packet in time, the duration monitoring time of the PDCCH may be set to 8ms, that is, the terminal device detects the PDCCH in the 1 st slot to the 8 th slot in fig. 9. As can be seen from fig. 9, when the XR service data packet is scheduled in the third time slot and only 1 time slot is needed to complete transmission, 5 time slots from the 4 th time slot to the 8 th time slot are unnecessary PDCCH monitoring, which results in waste of power consumption of the terminal device.

It should be understood that the legends in the following figures indicate the same slot meanings as in fig. 9, and therefore, the description is omitted.

Fig. 10 is a diagram of another PDCCH search space duration monitoring time. Illustratively, in fig. 10, the duration monitoring time of PDCCH is 8ms,1 slot equals 1ms, XR traffic data packet needs 4 slots for transmission, and XR traffic data packet arrives at 7 th slot of the duration monitoring time of PDCCH, according to the configuration of current PDCCH search space, terminal equipment does not perform PDCCH monitoring again at 9 th slot and 10 th slot, which may result in that XR traffic data packet cannot be transmitted at the duration monitoring time of current PDCCH, but is delayed to the duration monitoring time of next PDCCH, which may increase the transmission delay of XR traffic data packet.

In order to solve the problem that the PDCCH period of the search space is difficult to align with the period of the XR service data packet, in a possible implementation manner, the network device may configure the period of the PDCCH search space to be 1 slot, that is, the network device requires the terminal device to detect the PDCCH in each slot, so as to prepare to receive the XR service data packet at any time. However, in this manner, the terminal device frequently detects the PDCCH, which may result in increased power consumption and shortened usage time of the terminal device.

In view of this, embodiments of the present application provide a control channel configuration method and a communication apparatus, where a PDCCH period and a PDCCH continuous monitoring time that are closest to an XR service period are configured through a high-level signaling, an initial monitoring time slot of the PDCCH is configured through a physical layer control signaling to match an arrival time of the XR service, and a monitoring time length of the PDCCH is adjusted through the physical layer control signaling, which is beneficial to reducing transmission delay of XR service data packets and waste of power consumption of a terminal device caused by frequent detection of the PDCCH.

It should be understood that the monitoring period in the embodiment of the present application may be counted in the unit of time slot or millisecond. Illustratively, in the case of a subcarrier spacing of 15kHz, 1 slot is equal to 1ms. In the case of a subcarrier spacing of 30kHz, 1 slot is equal to 0.5ms, i.e. 1ms has 2 slots. In the case of a subcarrier spacing of 60kHz, 1 slot equals 0.25ms, i.e. 1ms has 4 slots. In the case of a subcarrier spacing of 120kHz, 1 slot equals 0.125ms, i.e., 1ms has 8 slots. In the case of a subcarrier spacing of 480kHz, a1 slot is equal to 312.5 microseconds (mus), i.e., 1ms has 32 slots. In the case of a subcarrier spacing of 960kHz, 1 slot is equal to 156.25 mus, i.e., 1ms has 64 slots. Without loss of generality, the following exemplary description will be given by taking the duration of 1 slot as 1ms.

Before describing the control channel configuration method and the communication device provided in the embodiments of the present application, the following description is made.

First, in the embodiments shown below, terms and english abbreviations such as search space, duration monitoring time, PDCCH monitoring cluster, sub-period, etc. are exemplary examples given for convenience of description, and should not limit the present application in any way. This application does not exclude the possibility of defining other terms in existing or future protocols that may fulfil the same or similar functions.

Second, the first, second and various numerical numbers in the embodiments shown below are merely for convenience of description and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application. E.g., to distinguish between different instructions, to distinguish between different search spaces, etc.

Third, "at least one" means one or more, "a plurality" means two or more. "and/or" describes the association relationship of the associated objects, meaning that there may be three relationships, e.g., a and/or B, which may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone, wherein A and B can be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the former and latter associated objects are in an "or" relationship. "at least one of the following" or similar expressions refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of the singular or plural items. For example, at least one (one) of a, b, and c, may represent: a, or b, or c, or a and b, or a and c, or b and c, or a, b and c, wherein a, b and c can be single or multiple.

Fig. 11 is a schematic flowchart of a control channel configuring method 1100 according to an embodiment of the present application. The method 1100 includes the steps of:

s1101, the network device sends a first instruction to the terminal device, wherein the first instruction is used for indicating a first search space of the terminal device, the first instruction comprises a length N of a PDCCH period of the first search space and a length L of a PDCCH continuous monitoring time in the first search space, L is greater than or equal to 1, and N is greater than L. Accordingly, the terminal device receives the first instruction.

Illustratively, the first instruction in the embodiment of the present application is a high layer signaling.

It should be understood that the length N of the PDCCH period in this embodiment may be determined according to a frame rate, and the length N of the PDCCH period and the length L of the PDCCH continuous monitoring time may be in units of slots (slots) or milliseconds (ms), which is not limited in this embodiment.

S1102, the network device sends a second instruction to the terminal device, where the second instruction is used to instruct the terminal device to activate the first search space. Accordingly, the terminal device receives the second instruction.

Exemplarily, the second instruction in the embodiment of the present application is physical layer control signaling.

S1103, the terminal device detects the PDCCH in the PDCCH monitoring period determined by the first search space based on the first instruction and the second instruction.

As an optional embodiment, the network device and the terminal device may predefine the length L of the PDCCH continuous monitoring time, so that the network device may not send the length L of the PDCCH continuous monitoring time to the terminal device, and the terminal device may determine the length L of the PDCCH continuous monitoring time according to a default value well agreed with the network device, which is beneficial to reducing extra signaling overhead.

In this embodiment, the network device may send the configuration of the first search space to the terminal device through the first instruction, where the PDCCH period of the first search space is set to match the period value of the XR service, so that the PDCCH monitoring period and the XR service data packet period may be synchronized, which is beneficial to avoiding an increase in transmission delay of the XR service data packet and a waste of power consumption of the terminal device in detecting the PDCCH due to asynchronous periods.

In addition, after the XR service data packet arrives, the terminal device may activate the first search space through the second instruction, that is, may determine a starting monitoring slot of the first search space for the XR service, where the starting monitoring slot is synchronized with an arrival time of the XR service data packet, which is beneficial to reducing transmission delay of the XR service data packet and power consumption of the terminal device for detecting the PDCCH.

Three implementation methods for the network device to configure the PDCCH period and PDCCH duration monitoring time of the search space via the first instruction are described below.

Implementing the method A1, on the basis of the above S1101, the first instruction is further configured to indicate a number M of PDCCH monitoring clusters in a PDCCH period, where the M PDCCH monitoring clusters correspond to M sub-periods, a sum of lengths of the M sub-periods is equal to a length N of the PDCCH period, and a length of a PDCCH continuous monitoring time of each PDCCH monitoring cluster in the M PDCCH monitoring clusters is L, where L is greater than or equal to 1, and M is greater than 1.

Illustratively, the XR service packet has a frame rate of 60fps, a jitter time of [ -4,4] ms, and a slot length of 1ms. In one possible implementation, the network device may configure the length N =1000ms of the PDCCH period, the number M =60 of PDCCH monitoring clusters, and the length L of the PDCCH duration monitoring time of each PDCCH monitoring cluster may be equal to the jitter time range, i.e., L =8ms.

That is, in this example, 60 PDCCH monitoring clusters are included in a PDCCH period of 1000ms, and a PDCCH duration monitoring time of each PDCCH monitoring cluster is 8ms.

Illustratively, the XR service packet has a frame rate of 60fps, a jitter time of [ -4,4] ms, and a slot length of 1ms. In another possible implementation, the network device may first calculate the greatest common divisor of the frame rates 60 and 1000, i.e., 20, and then configure the length N =1000/20=50ms of the PDCCH period, the number of PDCCH monitoring clusters M =60/20=3, and likewise, the PDCCH duration monitoring time L may be equal to the jitter time range, i.e., L =8ms.

That is, in the present example, three PDCCH monitoring clusters are included within a PDCCH period of 50ms, and a PDCCH duration monitoring time of each PDCCH monitoring cluster is 8ms.

Fig. 12 is a schematic diagram of a PDCCH period according to an embodiment of the present application. In fig. 12, the length of a PDCCH period N =50ms, and M =3 PDCCH monitoring clusters are included in one PDCCH period, and assuming that the jitter range of XR service packets is 8ms, the PDCCH duration monitoring time of each PDCCH monitoring cluster is equal to the jitter range, then L =8ms.

In the PDCCH period shown in fig. 12, the cluster spacing between the ith PDCCH monitoring cluster and the first PDCCH monitoring cluster is (i-1) × N/M) rounded up, and the cluster spacing between the mth PDCCH monitoring cluster and the first PDCCH monitoring cluster in the next PDCCH period is (M-1) × M rounded up subtracted from the length N of the PDCCH period. It should be understood that the rounding here may also be a rounding down or a rounding off, and may also be any other rounding manner, which is not limited by the embodiments of the present application.

An exemplary description of rounding up is described below in a round-robin fashion.

When i =2, the cluster spacing between the second PDCCH monitoring cluster and the first PDCCH monitoring cluster is ((2-1) × 50/3) rounded up, i.e. the cluster spacing is 17ms, i.e. the length of the sub-period of the first PDCCH monitoring cluster is 17ms.

When i =3, the interval time slot between the third PDCCH monitoring cluster and the first PDCCH monitoring cluster is (3-1) × 50/3) rounded up, i.e. the interval time slot is 34ms, then the cluster spacing between the third PDCCH monitoring cluster and the second PDCCH monitoring cluster is 34-17=17ms, i.e. the sub-period length of the second PDCCH monitoring cluster is 17ms.

The cluster spacing between the third PDCCH monitoring cluster and the first PDCCH monitoring cluster of the next PDCCH period is (50-34) =16ms, that is, the length of the sub-period of the third PDCCH monitoring cluster is 16ms.

Therefore, the cluster spacing between adjacent PDCCH monitoring clusters is 17ms, 1696s. That is to say, the lengths of the sub-periods corresponding to the three PDCCH monitoring clusters are 17ms,17ms and 1696s, respectively, and the sum of the lengths of the sub-periods of the three PDCCH monitoring clusters is 17+16=50ms.

The following is an exemplary description of rounding down in a round-robin fashion.

When i =2, the cluster spacing between the second PDCCH monitoring cluster and the first PDCCH monitoring cluster is (2-1) × 50/3) rounded down, i.e. the cluster spacing is 16ms, i.e. the length of the sub-period of the first PDCCH monitoring cluster is 16ms.

When i =3, the interval time slot between the third PDCCH monitoring cluster and the first PDCCH monitoring cluster is (3-1) × 50/3) rounded down, i.e. the interval time slot is 33ms, then the cluster spacing between the third PDCCH monitoring cluster and the second PDCCH monitoring cluster is 33-16=17ms, i.e. the sub-period length of the second PDCCH monitoring cluster is 17ms.

The cluster spacing between the third PDCCH monitoring cluster and the first PDCCH monitoring cluster of the next PDCCH period is (50-33) =17ms, i.e. the sub-period of the third PDCCH monitoring cluster has a length of 17ms.

Therefore, the cluster spacing between adjacent PDCCH monitoring clusters is 1696s, 17msec. The lengths of the corresponding sub-periods of the three PDCCH monitoring clusters are 1696s, 17ms and 17ms respectively, and the sum of the lengths of the sub-periods of the three PDCCH monitoring clusters is 16+17=50ms.

An exemplary description of rounding to rounding is provided below.

When i =2, the cluster spacing between the second PDCCH monitoring cluster and the first PDCCH monitoring cluster is (2-1) × 50/3) rounded, i.e. the cluster spacing is 17ms, i.e. the length of the sub-period of the first PDCCH monitoring cluster is 17ms.

When i =3, the interval time slot between the third PDCCH monitoring cluster and the first PDCCH monitoring cluster is (3-1) × 50/3) rounded value, i.e. the interval time slot is 33ms, then the cluster spacing between the third PDCCH monitoring cluster and the second PDCCH monitoring cluster is 33-17= 1696s, i.e. the sub-period length of the second PDCCH monitoring cluster is 16ms.

The cluster spacing between the third PDCCH monitoring cluster and the first PDCCH monitoring cluster of the next PDCCH period is (50-33) =17ms, that is, the length of the sub-period of the third PDCCH monitoring cluster is 17ms.

Therefore, the cluster spacing between adjacent PDCCH monitoring clusters is 17ms, 1696s and 17ms, the lengths of the corresponding sub-periods of the three PDCCH monitoring clusters are 17ms, 1696s and 17ms respectively, and the sum of the lengths of the sub-periods of the three PDCCH monitoring clusters is 17+16+17=50ms.

According to the configuration, under the condition that the frame rate of the XR service data packet is 60fps and the number of PDCCH monitoring clusters is M =3, the sub-periods of the three PDCCH monitoring clusters are 17ms,17ms and 1ims, or 1696s, 17ms and 17ms, or 17ms, 1696s and 17ms, respectively, and the average arrival period corresponding to the XR service data packet is 16.67ms, so that the configured PDCCH period can realize the period synchronization with the XR service data packet, and the transmission delay of the XR service data packet is favorably reduced. Similarly, under the configuration of N =1000ms, m =60, and l =8, the PDCCH period and the XR service data packet period can be synchronized, and the transmission delay of the XR service data packet is reduced.

It should be understood that XR service packets with different frame rates may correspond to different PDCCH cycle lengths N and PDCCH monitoring cluster numbers M, and a specific implementation method is given as shown in table one.

Watch 1

Frame rate	Period (periodicity) N (ms)	Number of monitoring clusters M
			30fps	100	3
60fps	50	3
			90fps	100	9
120fps	25	3

Accordingly, the information element included in the currently defined search space signaling may be deleted in the protocol, and the configuration information of the search space defined in the embodiment of the present application may be added to the currently defined search space signaling, where the added information element includes monitorangperiodicity, which defines the length N of the PDCCH cycle of the search space, and may be any one of ms25, ms50, ms100, or ms150, which indicates that the length N of the PDCCH cycle is 25ms, 50ms, 100ms, or 150ms, respectively. The added cell further includes monitorngclusternumber, which defines the number of PDCCH monitoring clusters in the PDCCH period, and may be any one of 3, 6 or 9. The added cells further include duration, which defines the PDCCH duration monitoring time of each PDCCH monitoring cluster and may take any integer from 2 to 2559. The added information element further includes monitorngsymbols within a slot defining a symbol for starting monitoring the PDCCH within one slot of the PDCCH duration monitoring time.

The length N of the PDCCH period defined above only lists limited values, and it should be understood that the length N of the PDCCH period may also take other values according to different frame rates of the XR service data packet, and the number M of the corresponding PDCCH monitoring clusters may also have other values, which are not listed here one by one.

The specific value method of the length N of the PDCCH period, the number M of PDCCH monitoring clusters, and the PDCCH duration monitoring time L has been described above, and is not described herein again.

Implementing the method A2, based on the above S1101, the first instruction is further configured to indicate M PDCCH monitoring clusters in a PDCCH period, where the M PDCCH monitoring clusters correspond to M sub-periods, a sum of lengths of the M sub-periods is equal to a length N of the PDCCH period, and a length of a PDCCH continuous monitoring time of each PDCCH monitoring cluster in the M PDCCH monitoring clusters is L, where L is greater than or equal to 1, and M is greater than 1.

The network device may indicate the length L of the PDCCH continuous monitoring time through the first instruction, or the network device and the terminal device may predefine the length L of the PDCCH continuous monitoring time without an indication by the network device, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

In this embodiment of the application, when configuring the first search space, the network device may indicate, through the first instruction, M PDCCH monitoring clusters in the PDCCH period, where each PDCCH monitoring cluster is configured with a corresponding sub-period.

It should be understood that the sub-period is relative to a PDCCH period, M PDCCH monitoring clusters correspond to M sub-periods, the sum of the lengths of the M sub-periods is equal to the length N of the PDCCH period, the length of PDCCH monitoring duration time of each of the M PDCCH monitoring clusters is L, and M is greater than 1. The network device may configure a pattern of PDCCH cycle sizes according to the length of the sub-period of the PDCCH monitoring cluster in each PDCCH cycle, which may indicate a change in PDCCH cycle size of the first search space.

In this embodiment of the present application, a pattern of the PDCCH period size may also be referred to as a sub-period pattern or a sub _ periodicity pattern, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

Exemplarily, the method for determining M sub-periods corresponding to M PDCCH monitoring clusters includes: the cluster spacing between the ith PDCCH monitoring cluster and the (i + 1) th PDCCH monitoring cluster is denoted as a first parameter (e.g., sub _ periodicity (i)), i takes a value from 1 to M-1, and the cluster spacing between the mth PDCCH monitoring cluster and the first PDCCH monitoring cluster of the next PDCCH period may be denoted as a second parameter (e.g., sub _ periodicity (M)). The sum of the lengths of the M sub-periods is equal to the length N of the PDCCH period, namely sub _ periodicity (1) + sub _ periodicity (2) + \8230, + 8230, + sub _ periodicity (M) = N, wherein M is less than or equal to N.

It is understood that any adjustment of the order of the M sub _ periodic values is within the scope of the present invention. For example, consider the following order of any of the sub-periods: the first order (sub _ period (1) =17, sub _ period (2) =16, sub _ period (3) = 15) is equivalent to the second order (sub _ period (1) =16, sub _ period (2) =15, sub _ period (3) = 17) and the third order (sub _ period (1) =15, sub _ period (2) =17, sub _ period (3) = 16).

Fig. 13 is a schematic diagram of a first search space configuration according to an embodiment of the present application. In fig. 13, three PDCCH monitoring clusters are included, and each PDCCH monitoring cluster corresponds to one sub-period.

As shown in fig. 13, if the PDCCH cycle size pattern configuring the first search space is [17ms, 1696s ], it indicates that the cluster spacing between the first PDCCH monitoring cluster and the second PDCCH monitoring cluster is 17ms, and the sub-period of the first PDCCH monitoring cluster is 17ms, that is, sub _ periodicity (1) =17ms. The cluster spacing between the second PDCCH monitoring cluster and the third PDCCH monitoring cluster is 17ms, and the sub-period of the second PDCCH monitoring cluster is 17ms, that is, sub _ periodicity (2) =17ms. The cluster spacing between the third PDCCH monitoring cluster and the PDCCH monitoring cluster of the first cluster of the next PDCCH period is 16ms, and the sub-period of the third PDCCH monitoring cluster is 16ms, that is, sub _ periodicity (3) =17ms. Thus circulating. It is within the scope of the present invention to configure the PDCCH cycle size pattern of [17ms, 1696s, 17ms ] or [ 1696s, 17ms ] for the first search space to be substantially the same.

In an embodiment of the present application, a network device indicates a PDCCH period that may be synchronized with a period of XR service data packets by configuring a pattern of PDCCH period sizes. Taking the frame rate of the XR service data packet as 60fps and the sub-period patterns as [17ms,17ms and 16ms ], the configured sub-period of the PDCCH monitoring cluster can realize the synchronization with the period 16.67ms of the XR service data packet, thereby being beneficial to reducing the transmission delay of the XR service data packet.

Illustratively, the pattern of PDCCH period sizes of the first search space may also be [16.5ms,17ms ], which is cycled according to a certain rule, so the order in which each sub-period occurs is not limited, i.e., may also be [16.5ms,17ms,16.5ms ], wherein [16.5ms,17ms,16.5ms ] and [16.5ms,17ms ] are substantially the same. Of course, the pattern [16.5ms,17ms ] may be equivalent to [33slot, 34slot ] in units of slots, for example, when 1 slot is equal to 0.5 ms.

Accordingly, a cell included in the currently defined search space signaling may be deleted in the protocol, and the configuration information of the search space defined in the embodiment of the present application is added to the currently defined search space signaling, where the added cell includes monitorngperiodicity, and a pattern (pattern) identifier corresponding to a sub-period of a PDCCH monitoring cluster of the search space is defined, and the pattern identifier may be any one of a pattern30, a pattern60, a pattern90, or a pattern120, where the pattern30, the pattern60, the pattern90, or the pattern120 is used to indicate a pattern of a PDCCH period size when the frame rate is 30fps, 60fps, 90fps, or 120fps, respectively. The added cells further include duration and monitorngsymbols within slot, which are similar to those described in the implementation of method A1 and will not be described herein.

The network device and the terminal device may pre-define a PDCCH cycle size pattern corresponding to the pattern identifier, where a correspondence relationship between the pattern identifier and the PDCCH cycle size pattern is shown in table two. For example, the pattern30 indicates that the PDCCH period includes three PDCCH monitoring clusters, and the cluster spacing of the corresponding PDCCH monitoring cluster or the sub-period size of the PDCCH monitoring cluster is [33ms, 34ms ].

Watch two

Frame rate	Pattern label	sub _ period style (ms)
			30fps	pattern30	[33,33,34]
60fps	pattern60	[17,17,16]
			90fps	pattern90	[11,11,11,11,11,11,11,11,12]
120fps	pattern120	[8,8,9]

In addition, the PDCCH period size pattern of the first search space may also be expressed as one basic sub-period plus an increment. Illustratively, for the periodic pattern [17ms, 1ims ], 16ms may be used as the base sub-period, and the incremental pattern may be [0, 1].

Accordingly, cells included in the currently defined search space signaling may be deleted in the protocol, and the configuration information of the search space defined in the embodiment of the present application may be added to the currently defined search space signaling, where the added cells include monilingperiodicity, and define a basic sub-period in a sub-period of a PDCCH monitoring cluster of the search space, and the basic sub-period may be any one of ms8, ms11, ms16, or ms33, where ms8, ms11, ms16, or ms33 respectively indicates that the length of the basic sub-period is 8ms, 11ms, 16ms, or 33ms. The added information element further comprises monitonngperiodicitydelta defining an identification of a sub-period increment pattern of the PDCCH monitoring cluster, which may be delta30, delta 60, delta 90 or delta 120, wherein delta30, delta 60, delta 90 or delta 120 is used to indicate the sub-period increment pattern when the frame rate is 30fps, 60fps, 90fps or 120fps, respectively. The added cells further include duration and monitorngsymbols within slot, which are similar to those described in the implementation of method A1 and will not be described herein.

The basic sub-period in the sub-period of the PDCCH monitoring cluster defined above only lists a limited number of values, and it should be understood that the basic sub-period may also take other values according to the frame rate of the XR service data packet, which is not listed here one by one.

The network device and the terminal device may predefine a sub-period increment pattern of the PDCCH monitoring cluster corresponding to the delta identifier, and a correspondence between the delta identifier and the sub-period increment pattern of the PDCCH monitoring cluster is shown in table three. For example, delta30 indicates that three PDCCH monitoring clusters are included within the PDCCH period, and the corresponding PDCCH monitoring clusters have a sub-period increment pattern of [0, 1].

Watch III

For example, the network device and the terminal device may also determine the pattern of PDCCH cycle sizes corresponding to different frame rates according to a protocol, as shown in table four, the network device and the terminal device may determine the corresponding relationship between the frame rate and the cycle determined according to table four, and the network device only needs to notify the terminal device of the frame rate of the XR service packet. Thus, if the network device transmits a frame rate of 30fps, the terminal device can determine the corresponding sub-period patterns to be [33ms, 34ms ] according to the table four.

Watch four

Frame rate	sub _ period style (ms)
		30fps	[33,33,34]
60fps	[17,17,16]
		90fps	[11,11,11,11,11,11,11,11,12]
120fps	[8,8,9]

Accordingly, cells included in the currently defined search space signaling may be deleted in the protocol, and the configuration information of the search space defined in the embodiment of the present application is added to the currently defined search space signaling, where the added cells include monitonngperiodicity, and define a frame rate of an XR service data packet, where the frame rate may be any one of 30fps, 60fps, 90fps, or 120fps, and different frame rates correspond to different PDCCH cycle size patterns. The added cells also include duration and monitorngsymbols within slot, which are similar to those described in the implementation of method A1 and will not be described herein again.

Similar to the implementation of the method A1, the PDCCH duration monitoring time L in the implementation of the method A2 may be determined by the jitter time of the XR service data packet, and will not be described herein again.

In the implementation method A1 and the implementation method A2, M clusters correspond to M sub-periods, a cluster spacing between adjacent clusters is used as a sub-period of a PDCCH monitoring cluster, the sub-period of the PDCCH monitoring cluster is synchronized with a period of an XR service data packet, and a sum of lengths of the M sub-periods is equal to a length N of the PDCCH period.

It is understood that other substantially similar methods are within the scope of the present invention.

Taking a frame rate of 60fps, m =3, n =50ms as an example, in one possible implementation, the sub-period of the ith PDCCH monitoring cluster is defined as a cluster spacing between the ith PDCCH monitoring cluster and the first PDCCH monitoring cluster, and the length of the sub-period of the first PDCCH monitoring cluster is zero, that is, the sub-period pattern of three PDCCH monitoring clusters may be [0ms,16ms,33ms ]. Of course, the constraint that the sum of the lengths of the M sub-periods is equal to the length N of the PDCCH period is not satisfied at this time.

Taking a frame rate of 60fps, m =3, N =50ms as an example, in another possible implementation manner, the sub-period of the ith PDCCH monitoring cluster is defined as a cluster spacing between the ith PDCCH monitoring cluster and the first PDCCH monitoring cluster, and the length of the sub-period of the first PDCCH monitoring cluster is N, that is, the sub-period pattern of the three PDCCH monitoring clusters may be [50ms,16ms,33ms ]. Of course, the constraint that the sum of the lengths of the M sub-periods is equal to the length N of the PDCCH period is not satisfied at this time.

In addition, the M PDCCH monitoring clusters can also correspond to (M-1) sub-periods, wherein the (M-1) sub-periods are determined according to adjacent cluster spacing or the cluster spacing between the ith PDCCH monitoring cluster and the first PDCCH monitoring cluster.

In one possible implementation, M =3, 2 cluster spacings or cluster sub-periods are defined, e.g., the sub-period pattern is [ 1696s, 17ms ]. After the start position of the first PDCCH monitoring cluster is determined, the start positions of the remaining 2 PDCCH monitoring clusters may be determined, for example, the start position of the first PDCCH monitoring cluster is Xms, the start position of the second PDCCH monitoring cluster is (X + 16) ms, and the start position of the third PDCCH monitoring cluster is (X +16+ 17) ms.

In another possible implementation, M =3, the sub-period of the ith PDCCH monitoring cluster is defined as a distance between the ith PDCCH monitoring cluster and the first PDCCH monitoring cluster, i =2 or 3, for example, the sub-period pattern is [16ms,33ms ], after the start position of the first PDCCH monitoring cluster is determined, the start positions of the remaining 2 PDCCH monitoring clusters can be determined, for example, the start position of the first PDCCH monitoring cluster is Xms, the start position of the second PDCCH monitoring cluster is (X + 16) ms, and the start position of the third PDCCH monitoring cluster is (X + 33) ms.

Implementing method A3, on the basis of S1101 above, the network device is further configured to indicate (M-1) search spaces. It should be understood that the (M-1) search spaces have the same length N of the PDCCH period as the first search space, and the (M-1) search spaces have the same length L of the PDCCH duration monitoring time in the PDCCH period as the first search space, wherein M is greater than 1.

The first instructions may also indicate PDCCH monitoring symbols, the first search space and the (M-1) search spaces having the same PDCCH monitoring symbols. The second instructions are also for instructing the terminal device to activate the (M-1) search spaces.

In this embodiment of the application, the first instruction may indicate M search spaces, where the M search spaces have an association relationship and may be associated with the same CORESET, and except for the time slot offset, the remaining time domain parameters of the M search spaces are the same, that is, the time domain parameters have the same length N of a PDCCH cycle and have the same length L of a PDCCH duration monitoring time in the PDCCH cycle.

As an alternative embodiment, the first instruction further indicates slot offsets of the M search spaces, the M slot offset values are different from each other, and a difference between the M slot offset values is smaller than or equal to the length N of the period.

In this embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may determine PDCCH initial monitoring slots of M search spaces according to M slot offset values. The value of M is related to the frame rate of the XR service data packet, and the values of the length N of the PDCCH period and the time slot offset are also related to the frame rate of the XR service data packet. The determination method of M is the same as the determination method of the number M of the M PDCCH monitoring clusters, and is not described again.

Illustratively, M search spaces may be identified from small to large according to the size of the slot offset, a slot offset difference between the i-th search space and the i + 1-th search space is defined as sub _ periodicity (i), a slot offset of the 1-th search space plus N is differentiated from the slot offset of the M-th search space, and is defined as sub _ periodicity (M), and similarly, the sum of the M sub _ periodicity is N, that is, sub _ periodicity (1) + sub _ periodicity (2) + \ 8230 \\ 8230 = (M) = N, where M is less than or equal to N.

It can be understood that the value of sub _ periodicity (i) is the same as the value of sub _ periodicity (i) of the PDCCH monitoring cluster in the implementation method A2. Likewise, it is within the scope of the present invention to adjust the order of the M sub _ periodic values.

The length N OF the PDCCH period and the values OF the time slot offset are related to the frame rate OF XR service data packets, when the frame rate is 60fps, the offset values OF 3 time slots corresponding to N =50ms, M =3,3 associated search spaces are sorted from small to large into OF ₁ ，OF ₂ ，OF ₃ OF wherein OF ₁ Indicating the slot offset OF the first search space, i.e. the slot offset OF the first search space is assumed here ₁ Minimum, OF ₂ And OF ₃ Indicating a time slot offset OF the other two search spaces associated with the first search space, satisfy (OF) ₂ -OF ₁ )+(OF ₃ -OF ₂ )+(OF ₁ +N-OF ₃ )＝N。

In the case of a frame rate of 60fps,1 slot equal to 1ms, N =50ms, i.e. 50 slots. One possible value is OF ₁ Is 0 time slot, OF ₂ Is 17 time slots, OF ₃ Is 33 slots, then (OF) ₂ -OF ₁ )＝17 time slots, (OF) ₃ -OF ₂ ) =16 time slots, (OF) ₁ +N-OF ₃ ) =17 time slots.

In the case of a frame rate of 60fps,1 slot equal to 0.5ms, N =50ms, i.e. 100 slots. One possible value is OF ₁ Is 0 time slot, OF ₂ Is 33 time slots, OF ₃ Is 66 time slots, (OF) ₂ -OF ₁ ) =33 time slots, (OF) ₃ -OF ₂ ) =33 time slots, (OF) ₁ +N-OF ₃ ) =34 slots.

In the above implementation method A3, the M search spaces correspond to M slot offset differences, and the M slot offset differences may be regarded as M sub-periods corresponding to the M search spaces. As another alternative embodiment, the M search spaces correspond to (M-1) sub-periods, and the (M-1) sub-periods are determined according to a slot offset difference of adjacent search spaces or a difference between the ith search space and the first search space.

Illustratively, when the frame rate is 60fps, M may be 3, defining 2 sub-periods, e.g., the sub-period pattern is [ 1696s, 17ms ], where 16ms indicates that the slot offset difference between the second search space and the first search space is 1696s, and 17ms indicates that the slot offset difference between the third search space and the second search space is 17ms. Alternatively, when the frame rate is 60fps, M can be 3, defining 2 sub-periods, for example, the sub-period pattern is [17ms,33ms ], where 16ms indicates that the difference in slot offset between the second search space and the first search space is 1696s, and 33ms indicates that the difference in slot offset between the third search space and the first search space is 33ms.

As with the implementation of the method A1, the PDCCH duration monitoring time of each search space in the implementation of the method A3 may be determined by the jitter time of the XR service packet, and is not described herein again.

For convenience of description, the above-described M search spaces having an association relationship including the first search space are also referred to as a first search space hereinafter.

It can be understood that, the three implementation methods for configuring the PDCCH period and the PDCCH continuous monitoring time of the search space by the network device, no matter M PDCCH monitoring clusters or M search spaces are configured, which are substantially the same, and the effect is that in the period N, M PDCCH monitoring periods with a duration of L are provided, and an interval between two adjacent PDCCH monitoring periods with a duration of L (where, the interval refers to an interval between a starting position of one continuous monitoring period and a starting position of an adjacent continuous monitoring period) is as close as possible to a period of an XR service data packet, so that the synchronization between the PDCCH monitoring period and the period of an XR service datagram is realized, and thus, the purposes of reducing XR transmission delay and reducing PDCCH detection power consumption of the terminal device are realized.

After the network device sends the configuration information of the first search space to the terminal device through the first instruction, the terminal device receives the configuration information, but does not immediately use the search space, but first saves the search space, and after monitoring an activation command of the first search space, the terminal device may perform PDCCH monitoring in a PDCCH monitoring cluster indicated by the first search space or M PDCCH search spaces with an association relationship represented by the first search space, where each monitoring lasts for at most L slots.

As an alternative embodiment, on the basis of the above S802, the second instruction is further used to indicate the slot offset O of the first search space _s1 The time slot offset O _s1 A PDCCH starting monitoring slot for determining the first search space.

It should be understood that when the first search space represents M search spaces having an association relationship, the slot offset O _s1 And the PDCCH initial monitoring time slot is used for determining the M search spaces with the association relationship.

Two implementation methods for configuring the PDCCH initial monitoring slot of the search space by the network device through the second instruction are described below.

The implementation method B1 is configured to instruct a second instruction for activating the first search space to be carried in another search space except the first search space of the terminal device, which is referred to as a second search space in the embodiment of the present application, and the terminal device may monitor the second instruction in a PDCCH monitoring period of the second search space. Illustratively, the second search space may be a common channel search space, configured by the network device.

In order to reduce the transmission delay of the XR service data packet, the network device may set the monitoring period of the second search space to a smaller value, for example, may set the monitoring period of the second search space to 2 slots, so that the first search space may be activated in time when the XR service data packet arrives, and the transmission delay of the XR service data packet may be reduced. After the network device sends the second instruction to the terminal device through the second search space, the terminal device may activate the first search space based on the second instruction, and may automatically deactivate the second search space, that is, stop PDCCH monitoring in the second search space.

In order to reduce the power consumption of the terminal device, the network device may set the monitoring period of the second search space to a larger value, for example, may set the monitoring period of the second search space to 32ms, which may result in a larger transmission delay for the first XR service packet, but the same transmission delay for the XR service packets after the first search space is activated. Also after activating the first search space, the second search space may be automatically deactivated.

It should be understood that when the first search space represents M search spaces having an association relationship, the second search space in the embodiment of the present application is a search space other than the M search spaces having an association relationship.

Fig. 14 is a schematic diagram of activating a first search space according to an embodiment of the present application. In fig. 14, assuming that 1 slot is equal to 1ms, the terminal device monitors the second instruction in slot k and can obtain slot offset O _s1 Based on the slot offset O _s1 The terminal device may determine that a starting time slot of a first PDCCH monitoring period with a duration L of the first search space is (k + O) _s1 ) Thereafter, the starting time slot of the (J + 1) th PDCCH monitoring period with the duration of L is

It should be understood that the network device may be based onThe time slot offset O is determined by the packet arrival time of the XR service data packet _s1 Through the slot offset O _s1 The subsequent PDCCH initial monitoring time slot can be synchronized with the packet arrival time of the XR service data packet, so that the transmission delay of the XR service data packet is reduced, and the power consumption waste of PDCCH monitoring is reduced.

In fig. 14, the PDCCH monitoring waveform of the terminal device is high, which indicates that the terminal device performs PDCCH monitoring in the first search space in the time slot, and the PDCCH monitoring waveform of the terminal device is low, which indicates that the terminal device does not perform PDCCH monitoring in the first search space in the time slot. If the manner of configuring M PDCCH monitoring clusters described in the foregoing implementation method A1 or implementation method A2 is adopted, sub _ periodicity (i) represents a sub-period of the ith PDCCH monitoring cluster, and sub _ periodicity (0) represents an interval between the mth PDCCH monitoring cluster and the first PDCCH monitoring cluster of the next period. If the manner of configuring M search spaces described in the above-described implementation method A3 is adopted, sub _ periodicity (i) represents a slot offset difference between the ith search space and the (i + 1) th search space.

That is, the terminal device is at (k + O) _s1 ) Detecting PDCCH in the first search space in PDCCH continuous monitoring time at the beginning of the time slot, stopping monitoring the PDCCH in the first search space after continuously monitoring L time slots, and enabling the terminal equipment to be in (k + O) _s1 ) Starting to detect the PDCCH in the PDCCH continuous monitoring time of the first search space in the + sub _ periodicity (1) time slot, stopping monitoring the PDCCH in the first search space after continuously monitoring the L time slot, and then (k + O) _s1 ) Starting from the time slot of + sub _ periodicity (1) + sub _ periodicity (2), detecting PDCCH in the PDCCH continuous monitoring time of the first search space, and so on, starting from (k + O) at the J +1 th monitoring of continuous PDCCH of the first search space _s1 ) + sub _ periodicity (1) + sub _ periodicity (2) + \8230and + sub _ periodicity (J mod M), wherein J is equal to or greater than 1, and the value of sub _ periodicity (i) is as described above. For the convenience of calculation, sub _ periodicity (0) = sub _ periodicity (M) is introduced.

Here, both the start of monitoring the PDCCH and the stop of monitoring the PDCCH refer to monitoring the PDCCH in the first search space. If the terminal device also monitors PDCCHs of other search spaces, the above process does not affect monitoring of PDCCHs of other search spaces.

Illustratively, when the PDCCH cycle size pattern is [15ms,17ms, 1696s ], if (i) mod (3) =1, then sub _ periodicity (i) =15ms, if (i) mod (3) =2, then sub _ periodicity (i) =17ms, and if (j) mod (3) =0, then sub _ periodicity (j) =16ms.

The terminal device determines a PDCCH initial monitoring slot of the first search space, and another specific implementation method is as follows: the terminal equipment can meet the requirements

Starts detecting PDCCH for a maximum of L slots. Wherein n is _f The number of the frame is indicated,

indicating the number of time slots in a frame,

denotes the time slot number, O _s1 And the time slot offset indicated by the second instruction is represented, sub _ periodicity (i) represents the ith sub-cycle, sub _ periodicity (1) + sub _ periodicity (2) + \8230, and sub _ periodicity (M) = N, wherein M is less than or equal to N, and N represents the length of the PDCCH cycle of the first search space.

When the first search space represents M search spaces having an association relationship, the terminal device determines PDCCH initial monitoring slots of the M search spaces, wherein one specific implementation method is as follows: the terminal device monitors the second instruction in the k time slot, and can acquire the time slot offset O _s1 Based on the slot offset O _s1 The terminal device may determine that the condition is satisfied

Starts detecting the PDCCH for a maximum of L slots, where n _f The number of the frame is indicated,

indicating the number of time slots in a frame,

denotes the time slot number, O _s1 Indicating the time slot offset, OF, indicated by the second instruction _i Indicating a slot offset for the ith search space of the M associated search spaces.

In the implementation method B2, in the implementation method B1, the second instruction is transmitted through a second search space other than the first search space, and the second instruction may also be transmitted by using part or all of the PDCCH monitoring period indicated by the first search space.

Specifically, the network device and the terminal device may agree that a second instruction for instructing activation of the first search space is carried in a third search space, where the third search space is determined according to the first search space, and the network device does not need to notify the terminal device through an additional signaling, thereby saving signaling overhead of the network device. The network device may carry the slot offset slotoffset of the third search space in the configuration of the first search space.

A specific implementation method for determining the third search space according to the first search space is as follows:

(1) The slot offset slotoffset of the third search space is the slot offset slotoffset set in the configuration of the first search space.

(2) The length of the PDCCH period of the third search space is N ', and N' may be obtained according to the period configuration of the first search space. The network device and the terminal device can define the relation between N' and N in advance, which is beneficial to saving signaling overhead.

When the network device indicates the length N of the PDCCH period through the first instruction as described in the above-described implementation method A1, then N '= N, or N' = int (N/M), where int denotes rounding, and rounding may be rounding up, rounding down, or rounding down. When N' = N, it is beneficial for the terminal device to reduce power consumption and save power, but the delay of the first XR service data packet is large. When N' = int (N/M), the terminal device detects that PDCCH is more dense, which is not favorable for saving power of the terminal device, but can reduce the transmission delay of the first XR service data packet.

When the network device indicates the PDCCH cycle size by the first instruction in the pattern described in the above implementation method A2, N' may also be determined according to the sub-cycle of the PDCCH monitoring cluster of the first search space.

As a possible implementation manner, N' = sub _ periodicity (1) + sub _ periodicity (2) + \8230, + 8230, + sub _ periodicity (M), where sub _ periodicity (1) represents a sub-period of a first PDCCH monitoring cluster in the M PDCCH monitoring clusters, sub _ periodicity (2) represents a sub-period of a second PDCCH monitoring cluster in the M PDCCH monitoring clusters, and sub _ periodicity (M) represents a sub-period of an M-th PDCCH monitoring cluster in the M PDCCH monitoring clusters.

Illustratively, the pattern of PDCCH period sizes of the first search space is [11ms, 111ms, 112ms ], then N' =11 +12=100ms.

Illustratively, the pattern of PDCCH cycle sizes for the first search space is [17ms, 1696s ], then N' =17 +16=50ms.

As another possible implementation, N' may be the maximum value or the minimum value in the sub-periods of all PDCCH monitoring clusters. Illustratively, the PDCCH cycle size pattern of the first search space is [17ms, 1696s ], then N' may take 17ms or 16ms.

When the network device indicates the PDCCH cycle size by the first instruction in the pattern described in the above implementation method A2, the starting position of the PDCCH continuous monitoring time of the third search space may be the same as the starting position of the PDCCH monitoring cluster of the first search space, or at an intermediate position of each PDCCH monitoring cluster.

When the network device indicates M associated search spaces by the first instruction as described above in implementing method A3, the length N' of the PDCCH period of the third search space may be equal to the length N of the PDCCH period of the first search space.

(3) The PDCCH of the third search space has a duration of monitoring P, where P may be a parameter predetermined by the network device and the terminal device, or may be a parameter notified to the terminal device through a high-level signaling.

For example, the value of P may be 1, or may be greater than 1, where the case that P is greater than 1 is mainly to reduce the probability that the terminal device fails to detect the PDCCH, so as to improve the transmission reliability of the second instruction for activating the first search space. If the value of P is too large, the PDCCH detection frequency of the terminal device is increased, and the power consumption of the terminal for monitoring the PDCCH is increased. By default, P may take the value of 2 slots. Or the network device may notify the value of P through higher layer signaling, for example, select one of 1, 2, 4, or 8 as the value of P.

(4) The other configuration of the third search space is the same as the first search space.

After receiving the configuration of the first search space, the terminal device may first determine a third search space according to the configuration of the first search space, and then detect a PDCCH in the third search space according to the configuration of the third search space to acquire a second instruction for activating the first search space.

Fig. 15 is a schematic configuration diagram of a third search space according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 15, the length of the PDCCH period of the third search space is N ', N' = N. The method comprises the steps that three PDCCH monitoring clusters are included in one PDCCH period, the PDCCH continuous monitoring time P =2 time slots of the first PDCCH monitoring cluster, and the PDCCH monitoring period does not exist in the other two PDCCH monitoring clusters. The terminal device may perform PDCCH monitoring in 2 consecutive slots of the third search space to obtain the second instruction.

When the XR service data packet arrives, the network device may send a second instruction in the PDCCH of the third search space, where the second instruction is used to instruct activation of the first search space, and accordingly, the third search space may be deactivated.

Fig. 16 is a schematic diagram of another example of activating the first search space according to the present disclosure. Assuming that 1 slot is equal to 1ms, the terminal device may first detect the PDCCH at 1 slot and 2 slot of the DPCCH duration monitoring time of the first PDCCH monitoring cluster in the third search space, and when an XR service data packet arrivesIf the network device sends a second instruction on the PDCCH of the third search space and the terminal device monitors the second instruction in the time slot k, the terminal device may obtain the time slot offset O of the first search space according to the second instruction _s1 Based on the slot offset O _s1 The terminal device may determine that a starting slot of a first PDCCH monitoring period with a duration L of the first search space is (k + O) _s1 ) Thereafter, the starting time slot of the (J + 1) th PDCCH monitoring period with the duration of L is

J is more than or equal to 1. It should be understood that in fig. 16, a high level indicates that the terminal device performs PDCCH monitoring, and a low level indicates that the terminal device does not need PDCCH monitoring.

Similar to the above-mentioned implementation method B1, if PDCCH configuration is performed in M clusters, sub _ periodicity (i) represents a sub-period of the ith cluster, and sub _ periodicity (0) represents an interval between the mth cluster and the first cluster of the next period. If the PDCCH configuration is performed in M search spaces, sub _ periodicity (i) represents a slot offset difference between the ith search space and the (i + 1) th search space. The specific monitoring process is also similar to that described in the above embodiment B1, and is not described here again.

In the above description, the slot offset O of the first search space _s1 Is indicated by the second instruction. Optionally, the slot offset O of the first search space _s1 The second instruction may be determined by a predefined rule or before the second instruction is sent, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

Specifically, the second instruction does not include the slot offset O of the first search space _s1 The network device and the terminal device may determine the O according to a predefined rule _s1 . One specific implementation is that after receiving the activate command, the O < th > address _s1 The time slot is a PDCCH initial monitoring time slot of the first search space. O is _s1 Can be a predetermined value, e.g. O _s1 And =2 time slots. Typically, the value of the contract is determined based on the processing capability of the terminal device, e.g. a terminal with a high processing capabilityEnd equipment O _s1 Terminal equipment O with small value and weak processing capacity _s1 The value is large.

Specifically, the second instruction does not include the slot offset O of the first search space _s1 The network device may send the slot offset O before sending the second instruction _s1 . E.g. including the slot offset O in the first instruction _s1 . The network device can determine O according to one or more of the capability of the terminal device, the load condition of the network device and the capability of the network device _s1 E.g. configuring high-capacity terminals with smaller O _s1 Value, configure larger O for low power terminals _s1 And (4) taking values.

The implementation method B1 and the implementation method B2 are substantially based on synchronization between the PDCCH period of the first search space and the arrival period of the XR service data packet, and configure, through the second instruction, a slot offset value that enables synchronization between the PDCCH initial monitoring slot of the first search space and the packet arrival time of the XR service data packet, where the slot offset value may be determined by the network device according to the packet arrival time of the XR service data packet, so as to advantageously reduce transmission delay of the XR service data packet.

On the basis that the PDCCH period of the first search space is synchronous with the arrival period of the XR service data packet, and the PDCCH initial monitoring time slot of the first search space is synchronous with the packet arrival time of the XR service data packet, the terminal equipment can monitor the PDCCH during the PDCCH continuous detection time and last for at most L time slots. For example, the duration monitoring time of the PDCCH is L =8 slots, and the XR service data packet is transmitted in 1-2 slots, the terminal device also needs to detect the PDCCH in the remaining duration monitoring time until the configured duration monitoring time of the PDCCH is finished, which wastes power consumption of the terminal device.

In order to solve the problem of power consumption waste, the network device and the terminal device may adjust the monitoring duration of the first search space according to a predetermined rule, and the network device does not need to notify the terminal device through an additional signaling.

Two implementation methods for adjusting the PDCCH monitoring duration will be described below.

Implementing the method C1, the network device sends a third instruction to the terminal device at the kth time slot in the L continuous monitoring times, where the third instruction is used to instruct the terminal device to stop detecting the PDCCH at the (k + 1) th time slot to the L time slot in the L continuous monitoring times. Accordingly, the terminal device receives the third instruction at the kth slot of the L continuous monitoring periods, and based on the third instruction, stops detecting the PDCCH from the (k + 1) th slot to the L slots of the L continuous monitoring periods.

In this embodiment of the application, the third instruction may be an effective Downlink Control Information (DCI), and the terminal device may stop monitoring the remaining time slots of the current PDCCH monitoring cluster after detecting the effective DCI, which is beneficial to reducing power consumption waste of the terminal device.

Fig. 17 is a schematic diagram for adjusting a monitoring duration in a PDCCH monitoring cluster according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In fig. 17, exemplarily, 1 slot is equal to 1ms, the length N of the PDCCH period =50ms, the number M of PDCCH monitoring clusters =3, the pattern of the corresponding PDCCH period is [17ms, 1696s ], and the PDCCH duration monitoring time L =8 slots, i.e., 8ms, in each PDCCH monitoring cluster.

In the first PDCCH monitoring cluster, the network device sends, at the 4 th time slot, an effective DCI notifying the terminal device to receive the XR service data packet, and after the terminal device receives the DCI at the 4 th time slot, the PDCCH monitoring in the first search space is no longer performed at the remaining 4 time slots of the PDCCH continuous monitoring time. In the second PDCCH monitoring cluster, the network device sends, at the 2 nd time slot, an effective DCI notifying the terminal device to receive the XR service data packet, and after the terminal device receives the effective DCI at the 2 nd time slot, the PDCCH monitoring in the first search space is no longer performed at the remaining 6 time slots of the PDCCH continuous monitoring time. In the third PDCCH monitoring cluster, if there is no XR service packet, the network device does not send effective DCI to the terminal device, and the terminal device does not monitor effective DCI after monitoring the PDCCH for the continuous monitoring time (i.e., continuously monitoring for 8 slots), then monitoring of the first search space is no longer performed until the next PDCCH monitoring cluster arrives.

Considering that the XR service data packet is large, in order to reduce power consumption of detecting the PDCCH by the terminal device and signaling redundancy of transmitting the PDCCH by the network device, further, the DCI transmitted on the PDCCH in the first search space may support a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) in which the DCI schedules one or more time slots, which is beneficial to reducing overhead (overhead) and energy consumption caused by frequently transmitting the DCI by the network device.

Fig. 18 is a schematic diagram of scheduling multiple PDSCHs by using one DCI according to an embodiment of the present application. In fig. 18, exemplarily, 1 slot is equal to 1ms, pdcch duration monitoring time L =8 slots, and when the terminal device monitors valid DCI in the 3 rd slot, one DCI may schedule PDSCH of 3 slots. It should be understood that the legend 3 indicates the time slots in which PDSCH is scheduled.

In the process of scheduling the PDSCH of multiple time slots, one DCI may exceed the end time slot of the current PDCCH monitoring cluster, but may not exceed the end time slot of the next PDCCH monitoring cluster.

Fig. 19 is a schematic diagram of scheduling multiple PDSCHs according to another DCI provided in an embodiment of the present application. In fig. 19, exemplarily, 1 slot is equal to 1ms, and PDCCH duration monitoring time L =8 slots, it can be seen from fig. 19 that the valid DCI of the first PDCCH monitoring cluster is transmitted at the 3 rd slot of the PDCCH duration monitoring time, and a PDSCH of 8 slots including the slot itself is scheduled. The effective DCI of the second PDCCH monitoring cluster is transmitted at the 5th time slot of the PDCCH continuous monitoring time, and the PDSCH including 10 time slots of the time slot itself is scheduled to exceed the end time slot of the current PDCCH monitoring cluster (i.e., the second PDCCH monitoring cluster), but not exceed the end time slot of the next PDCCH monitoring cluster (i.e., the third PDCCH monitoring cluster). The valid DCI for the third PDCCH monitoring cluster is sent in the 2 nd slot of the PDCCH duration monitoring time, and schedules the PDSCH including the 4 slots of the slot itself.

It should be understood that in fig. 19, a high level indicates that the terminal device performs PDCCH monitoring, and a low level indicates that the terminal device does not need PDCCH monitoring.

Implementing the method C2, the network device sends a fourth instruction to the terminal device, where the fourth instruction includes indication information for indicating whether the terminal device continues to detect the PDCCH. The detection time slot information indicated by the fourth signaling is not limited to the L persistent PDCCH detection time slots, but may include time slots other than the L persistent PDCCH detection time slots.

Exemplarily, the fourth instruction is physical layer downlink control signaling DCI. The network device may schedule one or more PDSCHs through one DCI.

Exemplarily, if the terminal device receives the DCI at the kth time slot of the ith PDCCH monitoring cluster, where the DCI includes indication information for indicating the terminal device to stop detecting the PDCCH, the terminal device stops monitoring the DCCH of the PDCCH until the starting time slot of the (i + 1) th PDCCH monitoring cluster.

Taking the example that the network device schedules one PDSCH in one DCI, if the terminal device receives the DCI at the kth time slot of the ith PDCCH monitoring cluster, and the DCI includes indication information indicating that the terminal device continues to detect the PDCCH. Further, the indication information may specifically indicate when to detect the PDCCH, for example, the terminal device may be indicated to detect the PDCCH in the next time slot, or the terminal device may be indicated to detect the PDCCH in the t-th time slot after the k-th time slot, or the terminal device may also be indicated to detect the PDCCH in other search spaces, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

It should be understood that the terminal device continues to detect the PDCCH after receiving the indication information of continuing to detect the PDCCH, which refers to the PDCCH of the first search space or the PDCCHs of the M search spaces having an association relationship, which are represented by the first search space.

Taking the XR service data packet requiring multiple PDSCH transmission as an example, the network device schedules multiple PDSCHs in one DCI, and selects multiple continuous or discontinuous slots to transmit the XR service data packet.

It should be understood that if the DCI received by the terminal device indicates that the terminal device needs to continue detecting the PDCCH, the terminal device continues to detect the PDCCH until a new DCI is received indicating that the PDCCH does not need to continue to be detected subsequently, or until the starting monitoring slot of the next PDCCH monitoring cluster.

Fig. 20 is a schematic diagram of adjusting a monitoring duration in a PDCCH monitoring cluster according to an embodiment of the present application. In fig. 20, exemplarily, 1 slot is equal to 1ms, the length N of the PDCCH period =50ms, the number M of PDCCH monitoring clusters =3, the pattern of the corresponding PDCCH period sizes is [17ms, 1696s ], and the length L of the PDCCH duration monitoring time in each PDCCH monitoring cluster =8 slots, that is, 8ms.

As can be seen from fig. 20, for example, the terminal device detects DCI at the 3 rd time slot of the first PDCCH monitoring cluster, where the DCI indicates the time slot of the currently scheduled PDSCH, that is, the 3 rd time slot, and also includes indication information indicating that the terminal device continues to detect the PDCCH. According to the indication information, the terminal device detects the PDCCH in a plurality of consecutive time slots after the indication information is currently detected, as shown in fig. 17, the terminal device detects the PDCCH in the 4 th time slot but does not detect the DCI, continues to detect the PDCCH in the 5th time slot, and so on until the DCI for indicating to stop detecting the PDCCH is monitored in the 15 th time slot, so the terminal device does not perform PDCCH monitoring in the 16 th time slot and the 17 th time slot thereafter until the initial monitoring time slot of the second PDCCH monitoring cluster.

Similarly, the terminal device detects DCI at the 5th time slot of the second PDCCH monitoring cluster, where the DCI indicates the time slot of the currently scheduled PDSCH, that is, the 5th time slot, and also includes indication information indicating that the terminal device continues to detect the PDCCH. And the terminal equipment continues to detect the PDCCH in the time slot after the 5th time slot according to the indication information, and monitors the DCI for indicating to stop detecting the PDCCH in the 6 th time slot, so that the terminal equipment stops monitoring the PDCCH after the 6 th time slot until the starting monitoring time slot of a third PDCCH monitoring cluster.

Similarly, the terminal device detects DCI in the 2 nd time slot of the third PDCCH monitoring cluster, where the DCI indicates the time slot of the currently scheduled PDSCH, that is, the 2 nd time slot, and also includes indication information indicating that the terminal device continues to detect the PDCCH. And the terminal equipment continues to detect the PDCCH in the time slot after the 2 nd time slot according to the indication information, and monitors the DCI for indicating to stop detecting the PDCCH in the 9 th time slot, so that the terminal equipment stops monitoring the PDCCH after the 9 th time slot until the initial monitoring time slot of the first PDCCH monitoring cluster of the next PDCCH period, and so on.

Fig. 21 is a schematic diagram of adjusting a monitoring duration in a PDCCH monitoring cluster according to an embodiment of the present application. In fig. 21, exemplarily, 1 slot is equal to 1ms, the length of the PDCCH period N =50ms, the number of PDCCH monitoring clusters M =3, the corresponding PDCCH period size pattern is [17ms,16ms ], and the length of the PDCCH duration monitoring time in each PDCCH monitoring cluster L =8 slots, that is, 8ms.

As can be seen from fig. 21, for example, the terminal device detects DCI at the 3 rd time slot of the first PDCCH monitoring cluster, where the DCI indicates the time slot of the currently scheduled PDSCH, that is, the 3 rd time slot, and also includes indication information indicating that the terminal device skips the 4 th, 5th, and 6 th time slots to perform non-detection, and continues to detect the PDCCH at the 7 th time slot. According to the indication information, after the indication information is currently detected, the terminal device does not detect in the 4 th, 5th and 6 th time slots, and continues to detect the PDCCH in the 7 th time slot, as shown in fig. 18, the terminal device detects DCI in the 7 th time slot, the DCI indicates the terminal device to detect the PDCCH in the 8 th time slot, after the terminal device detects the PDCCH in the 7 th time slot, the terminal device continues to detect the PDCCH in the 8 th time slot, the terminal device detects the DCI, the DCI indicates to stop the detection of the PDCCH monitoring cluster, and then the terminal device does not perform PDCCH monitoring in the following 9 th to 17 th time slots until the initial monitoring time slot of the second PDCCH monitoring cluster.

Similarly, the terminal device detects DCI at the 6 th time slot of the second PDCCH monitoring cluster, where the DCI indicates the time slot of the currently scheduled PDSCH, that is, the 6 th time slot, and also includes indication information indicating that the terminal device continues to detect the PDCCH at the 11 th time slot. And the terminal equipment stops the PDCCH detection of the 7 th to 10 th time slots according to the indication information, detects the PDCCH in the time slot after the 11 th time slot, does not detect the PDCCH in the 11 th time slot, continues to detect the PDCCH in the 12 th time slot until the DCI is detected in the 13 th time slot, and the DCI indicates to stop the detection of the detection cluster, so that the terminal equipment does not perform PDCCH monitoring in the 13 th to 17 th time slots after the detection cluster until the initial monitoring time slot of the third PDCCH detection cluster.

Similarly, the detection process of the third PDCCH monitoring cluster is similar to the process of the first PDCCH monitoring cluster and the second PDCCH monitoring cluster, and is not described herein again.

Fig. 22 is a schematic flow chart diagram of another control channel configuration method 1100 provided in an embodiment of the present application. During the communication process between the terminal device and the network device, the arrival time of the XR service may change, so as to be mismatched with the previously determined first search space, thereby causing an increase in the transmission delay of the XR service. To solve this problem, after step S1103, optionally, the method 1100 may further include the steps of:

s1104, the network device sends a fifth instruction to the terminal device, where the fifth instruction is used to determine a starting position of a PDCCH monitoring period of the first search space. Accordingly, the terminal device receives the fifth instruction.

S1105, the terminal device detects a PDCCH in the PDCCH monitoring period determined in the first search space based on the first instruction, the second instruction, and the fifth instruction.

As a specific implementation, the fifth instruction is used to indicate the slot offset O _s2 The time slot offset O _s2 A PDCCH starting monitoring slot for determining the first search space.

The following describes the offset O according to the time slot _s2 Four implementation methods for determining the PDCCH initial monitoring slot of the first search space.

1. The terminal device receives a slot offset O in slot k _s2 Based on the slot offset O _s2 The terminal device may determine that a starting slot of a first PDCCH monitoring period with a duration L after slot k of the first search space is (k + O) _s2 ) After that, the starting time slot of the (J + 1) th PDCCH monitoring period with the duration of L is

J≥1。

2. The terminal device may start detecting the PDCCH at a time slot satisfying the following formula, lasting for a maximum of L time slots:

wherein n is _f The number of the frame is indicated,

indicating the number of time slots in a frame,

denotes the time slot number, O _s2 Indicating the slot offset indicated by the fifth instruction, sub _ periodicity (i) indicating the ith sub-period, sub _ periodicity (1) + sub _ periodicity (2) + \8230, + sub _ periodicity (M) = N. M is less than or equal to N, wherein N represents the PDCCH period of the first search space.

3. When the first search space represents M search spaces having an association relationship, the terminal device determines PDCCH initial monitoring slots of the M search spaces, wherein one specific implementation method is as follows: the terminal device monitors the fifth instruction in the k time slot, and can acquire the time slot offset O _s2 Based on the slot offset O _s2 The terminal device may determine to start detecting the PDCCH at a time slot satisfying the following formula, lasting for a maximum of L time slots:

wherein n is _f The number of the frame is indicated,

indicating the number of time slots in a frame,

denotes the time slot number, O _s2 Indicating the time slot offset, OF, indicated by the fifth instruction _i Indicating the slot offset of the ith search space.

4. The terminal equipment integrally adjusts the time slot offset O on the basis of the starting time slot offset of the L continuous PDCCH monitoring periods of the current first search space _s2 . For example, the starting slot offset of the L continuous PDCCH monitoring periods of the current first search space is O _s3 If the starting time slot of the L continuous PDCCH monitoring periods of the adjusted first search space is O _s3 +O _s2 。

By adopting the implementation method, when the XR service arrival time changes, the starting time of the PDCCH monitoring period can be updated by adopting a fifth instruction so as to match the arrival time of the XR service, and the XR service transmission delay is reduced.

Still further, for the uplink XR service, the network device may not accurately know the arrival time of the XR service, and in this case, in a specific implementation method, the method 1100 further includes:

s1106, the terminal device sends a sixth instruction to the network device, where the sixth instruction is used to indicate a slot offset of the first search space desired by the terminal device. Accordingly, the network device receives the sixth instruction.

The sixth instruction may be physical layer signaling or higher layer signaling. When the sixth instruction is a high-layer signaling, the sixth instruction may be sent as terminal equipment auxiliary information, which is a manner with better standard compatibility. When the sixth command is physical layer signaling, the sixth command can be sent through an uplink control channel, and in this way, the signaling transmission delay is shorter.

The slot offset of the first search space desired by the terminal device may be one of N values determined according to the first search space period, or an adjustment value equivalent to the slot offset of the current first search space.

After receiving the sixth instruction, the network device may determine the timeslot offset of the first search space according to the sixth instruction, and then send the timeslot offset to the terminal device through a signaling. That is, optionally, after S1106, steps S1104 and S1105 are further included.

The terminal device may estimate the XR arrival time according to the history information or the current service condition, so as to determine the slot offset of the first search space matching the XR arrival time, and send the slot offset to the network device, so that the network device determines an appropriate slot offset. This process may occur before the network device configures the first search space, or after the network device activates the first search space. That is, step S1106 may be before step S1101, or after step S1101, without limitation; step S1106 may be before step S1102 or after step S1102, without limitation. Step S1106 may be before step S1104 or after step S1104, without limitation.

It should be understood that S1101, and S1103 of the method 1100 in fig. 22 are not shown, and reference may be specifically made to the description in fig. 11, which is not repeated herein.

In summary, the control channel configuration method provided in this embodiment of the present application implements alignment between a PDCCH period and an XR service period by configuring a length of the PDCCH period as close as possible to the XR service period, which is beneficial to avoiding XR service data packet transmission delay and power consumption waste of terminal device detecting the PDCCH due to period misalignment. The physical layer control signaling is adopted to determine the PDCCH initial monitoring time slot of the search space for the XR service data packet after the XR service data packet arrives, so that the PDCCH monitoring time is aligned with the XR service data packet arrival time, and the transmission delay of the XR service data packet and the power consumption waste of the terminal equipment for detecting the PDCCH caused by misalignment are avoided. The time length for detecting the PDCCH every time is adjusted through the physical layer control signaling or according to the predefined rule, so that the power consumption for detecting the PDCCH by the terminal equipment is reduced.

Method embodiments of the present application are described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, and apparatus embodiments of the present application are described below. It is understood that the description of the method embodiments and the description of the apparatus embodiments may correspond to each other, and therefore, reference may be made to the foregoing method embodiments for parts that are not described.

It is to be understood that, in the above-described method embodiments, the method and the operation implemented by the network device may also be implemented by a component (e.g., a chip or a circuit) available for the network device, and the method and the operation implemented by the terminal device may also be implemented by a component (e.g., a chip or a circuit) available for the terminal device.

The above mainly introduces the solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application from the perspective of interaction between network elements. It is understood that each network element, for example, the transmitting end device or the receiving end device, includes a corresponding hardware structure and/or software modules for performing each function in order to implement the above functions. Those of skill in the art would appreciate that the various illustrative components and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as hardware or combinations of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is performed as hardware or computer software drives hardware depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

In the embodiment of the present application, the functional modules may be divided according to the above method example for the transmitting end device or the receiving end device, for example, each functional module may be divided corresponding to each function, or two or more functions may be integrated into one processing module. The integrated module can be realized in a hardware mode, and can also be realized in a software functional module mode. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the division of the module is schematic, and is only one logic function division, and there may be another division manner in actual implementation. The following description will be given taking the example of dividing each functional module corresponding to each function.

Fig. 23 shows a schematic block diagram of a communication device 2300 provided by an embodiment of the present application, where the device 2300 includes: a determination module 2301 and a transmission module 2302.

Wherein the determining module 2301 is configured to: determining the configuration of a first search space of the terminal equipment; the sending module 2302 is configured to: the terminal equipment is used for sending a first instruction to the terminal equipment, wherein the first instruction is used for indicating a first search space of the terminal equipment and comprises a length N of a PDCCH period of the first search space and a length L of a PDCCH continuous monitoring time in the first search space, L is greater than or equal to 1, and N is greater than L; and sending a second instruction to the terminal device, wherein the second instruction is used for indicating the terminal device to activate the first search space.

Optionally, the first instruction is further configured to indicate M PDCCH monitoring clusters in the PDCCH period, where the M PDCCH monitoring clusters correspond to M sub-periods, a sum of lengths of the M sub-periods is equal to the length N of the PDCCH period, a length of PDCCH monitoring duration of each PDCCH monitoring cluster in the M PDCCH monitoring clusters is L, and M is greater than 1.

Optionally, the second instructions are further for indicating a slot offset O of the first search space _s1 The time slot offset O _s1 A PDCCH starting monitoring slot for determining the first search space.

Optionally, the first instructions are further configured to indicate (M-1) search spaces, the (M-1) search spaces and the first search space have a same length N of a PDCCH cycle, the (M-1) search spaces and the first search space have a same length L of a PDCCH continuous monitoring time in the PDCCH cycle, and M is greater than 1; the first instructions further include PDCCH monitoring symbols, the first search space and the (M-1) search spaces having the same PDCCH monitoring symbols; the second instructions are also for instructing the terminal device to activate the (M-1) search spaces.

Optionally, the first instruction further indicates slot offsets of the first search space and the (M-1) search spaces, the M slot offset values being different from each other; the second instructions are also for indicating a slot offset O of the first search space _s1 The time slot offset O _s1 PDCCH initial monitoring slots for determining the first search space and the (M-1) search spaces.

Optionally, the sending module 2302 is configured to: and sending a third instruction to the terminal equipment at the kth time slot in the L continuous monitoring time, wherein the third instruction is used for instructing the terminal equipment to stop detecting the PDCCH from the (k + 1) th time slot to the L time slot in the L continuous monitoring time.

Optionally, the sending module 2302 is configured to: and sending a fifth instruction to the terminal device, wherein the fifth instruction is used for determining the starting position of the PDCCH monitoring period of the first search space.

Optionally, the apparatus 2300 further comprises a receiving module 2303 for receiving a sixth instruction from the terminal device, the sixth instruction for indicating a slot offset of the first search space.

In an alternative example, it can be understood by those skilled in the art that the apparatus 2300 may be embodied as the first communication apparatus in the above embodiment, or the functions of the network device in the above embodiment may be integrated in the apparatus 2300. The above functions may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions described above. For example, the sending module 2302 may be a communication interface, such as a transceiving interface. Apparatus 2300 can be configured to perform various ones, and/or steps, of the method embodiments described above corresponding to a network device.

Fig. 24 shows a schematic block diagram of another communication device 2400 provided in an embodiment of the present application, where the device 2400 includes: a receiving module 2401 and a processing module 2402.

Wherein the receiving module 2401 is configured to: receiving a first instruction from a network device, wherein the first instruction is used for indicating a first search space, and the first instruction comprises a length N of a PDCCH period of the first search space and a PDCCH duration monitoring time L in the first search space, wherein L is greater than or equal to 1, N is greater than L; and receiving a second instruction from the network device, the second instruction indicating activation of the first search space. The processing module 2402 is used for: and detecting the PDCCH in the PDCCH continuous monitoring time determined by the first search space based on the first instruction and the second instruction.

Optionally, the first instruction is further configured to indicate M PDCCH monitoring clusters in the PDCCH period, where the M PDCCH monitoring clusters correspond to M sub-periods, a sum of the lengths of the M sub-periods is equal to the length N of the PDCCH period, and a PDCCH monitoring cluster of each PDCCH monitoring cluster in the M PDCCH monitoring clusters continuously monitors for a PDCCH monitoring cluster with a time length L, where M is greater than 1. The processing module 2402 is configured to: and detecting the PDCCH in the PDCCH continuous monitoring time of the M PDCCH monitoring clusters in the first search space according to the first instruction and the second instruction.

Optionally, the processing module 2402 is configured to: a slot offset O according to the first search space _s1 And a sub-period of the PDCCH monitoring clusterDetermining the PDCCH initial monitoring time slot; and monitoring the PDCCH of the first search space from the PDCCH initial monitoring time slot.

Optionally, the first instruction is further configured to indicate (M-1) search spaces, the (M-1) search spaces and the first search space have a same length N of a PDCCH period, and the (M-1) search spaces and the first search space have a same duration monitoring time L of a PDCCH within the PDCCH period, and M is greater than 1. The first instructions also include PDCCH monitoring symbols, the first search space and the (M-1) search spaces having the same PDCCH monitoring symbols. The second instruction is also for indicating activation of the (M-1) search spaces. The processing module 2402 is configured to: and detecting the PDCCH in the PDCCH continuous monitoring time determined by the first search space and the (M-1) search spaces according to the first instruction and the second instruction.

Optionally, the second instructions are further for indicating a slot offset O of the first search space _s1 The time slot offset O _s1 And is also configured to determine PDCCH starting monitoring slots for the first search space and the (M-1) search spaces.

Optionally, the first instruction further indicates slot offsets of the first search space and the (M-1) search spaces, the M slot offset values being different from each other; the processing module 2402 is configured to: a slot offset O according to the first search space _s1 And the time slot offset of the M search spaces, determining the PDCCH initial monitoring time slots of the first search space and the (M-1) search spaces; and monitoring the first search space and the (M-1) search spaces starting from the PDCCH initial monitoring slot.

Optionally, the receiving module 2401 is configured to: receiving a third instruction from the network device at a kth time slot of the L continuous monitoring time periods, wherein the third instruction is used for instructing to stop detecting the PDCCH in the L continuous monitoring time periods; the processing module 2402 is configured to: based on the third instruction, the PDCCH is stopped from being detected in the (k + 1) th slot to the L slots of the L continuous monitoring times.

Optionally, the receiving module 2401 is configured to: a fifth instruction is received from the network device, the fifth instruction to determine a starting position of a PDCCH monitoring period for the first search space.

Optionally, the processing module 2402 is configured to: and detecting the PDCCH in the PDCCH monitoring period determined by the first search space based on the first instruction, the second instruction and the fifth instruction.

Optionally, the apparatus 2400 further includes a sending module 2403 for sending a sixth instruction to the network device, where the sixth instruction is used to indicate a slot offset of the first search space.

In an alternative example, it may be understood by those skilled in the art that the apparatus 2400 may be embodied as a terminal device in the foregoing embodiment, or the functions of the terminal device in the foregoing embodiment may be integrated in the apparatus 2400. The above functions may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions described above. For example, the receiving module 2401 may be a communication interface, such as a transceiving interface. Apparatus 2400 may be configured to perform various processes and/or steps corresponding to the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiments.

It should be appreciated that the apparatus 2300 and the apparatus 2400 herein are embodied in the form of functional modules. The term module herein may refer to an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor (e.g., a shared, dedicated, or group processor) and memory that execute one or more software or firmware programs, a combinational logic circuit, and/or other suitable components that support the described functionality.

In the embodiments of the present application, the device 2300 and the device 2400 may also be a chip or a chip system, for example: system on chip (SoC). Correspondingly, the transmitting module 2302 may be a transceiver circuit of the chip, and is not limited herein.

Fig. 25 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 2500 may be the terminal device in fig. 1, or may also be the terminal device in fig. 2, fig. 3, or fig. 4, and is configured to implement the method for the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiment. The communication device may also be the first network device or the second network device in fig. 2, or may also be a network device in the RAN in fig. 3 or fig. 4, such as a CU, a DU, a CU-CP, or a CU-UP, for implementing the method corresponding to the network device in the above method embodiment. The specific functions can be referred to the descriptions in the above method embodiments.

The communications device 2500 includes one or more processors 2501. The processor 2501 may also be referred to as a processing unit and may perform certain control functions. The processor 2501 may be a general purpose processor, a special purpose processor, or the like. For example, it includes: a baseband processor, a central processing unit, an application processor, a modem processor, a graphics processor, an image signal processor, a digital signal processor, a video codec processor, a controller, a memory, and/or a neural network processor, among others. The baseband processor may be configured to process communication protocols as well as communication data. The central processor may be used to control the communications device 2500, execute software programs, and/or process data. The different processors may be separate devices or may be integrated in one or more processors, e.g., on one or more application specific integrated circuits.

Optionally, one or more memories 2502 are included in the communications device 2500 to store instructions 2504 that are executable on the processor to cause the communications device 2500 to perform the methods described in the method embodiments above. Optionally, the memory 2502 may further store data. The processor and the memory may be provided separately or may be integrated together.

Optionally, the communication device 2500 may include instructions 2503 (sometimes also referred to as code or program), which instructions 2503 may be executed on the processor, such that the communication device 2500 performs the methods described in the above embodiments. Data may be stored in the processor 2501.

Optionally, the communications device 2500 may also include a transceiver 2505 and an antenna 2506. The transceiver 2505 may be referred to as a transceiver unit, a transceiver circuit, a transceiver, an input/output interface, etc. for implementing the transceiving function of the communication device 2500 through the antenna 2506.

Optionally, the communication device 2500 may further include one or more of the following components: the wireless communication module, the audio module, the external memory interface, the internal memory, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface, the power management module, the antenna, the speaker, the microphone, the input/output module, the sensor module, the motor, the camera, or the display screen. It is understood that in some embodiments, the communications device 2500 may include more or fewer components, or some components integrated, or some components separated. These components may be hardware, software, or a combination of software and hardware implementations.

The processor 2501 and the transceiver 2505 described herein may be implemented on an Integrated Circuit (IC), an analog IC, a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFID), a mixed signal IC, an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Printed Circuit Board (PCB), an electronic device, or the like. The communication apparatus implementing the present description may be a standalone device (e.g., a standalone integrated circuit, a mobile phone, etc.), or may be a part of a larger device (e.g., a module that can be embedded in other devices), and may refer to the foregoing description about the terminal device and the network device, which is not described herein again.

The embodiment of the present application provides a terminal device, which (for convenience of description, referred to as UE) may be used in the foregoing embodiments. The terminal device comprises corresponding means (means), units and/or circuits to implement the terminal device functionality described in the embodiments shown in fig. 1, fig. 2, fig. 3, fig. 4, fig. 11 and/or fig. 22. For example, the terminal device includes a transceiver module for supporting the terminal device to implement a transceiver function, and a processing module for supporting the terminal device to process a signal.

Fig. 26 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application. The terminal device 2600 may be adapted to the system shown in fig. 1, fig. 2, fig. 3, or fig. 4. For ease of illustration, fig. 26 shows only the main components of terminal device 2600. As shown in fig. 26, the terminal apparatus 2600 includes a control circuit 2610, a processor 2620, a memory 2630, an antenna 2640, and an input/output device 2650. The processor 2620 is mainly used for processing a communication protocol and communication data, controlling the entire terminal device 2600, executing a software program, and processing data of the software program. The memory 2630 is used primarily for storing software programs and data. The control circuit 2610 is mainly used for conversion between baseband signals and radio frequency signals and processing of the radio frequency signals. The antenna 2640 is mainly used for transmitting and receiving radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. Input and output devices 2650 such as touch screens, display screens, microphones, keyboards, etc. are used primarily for receiving data input by a user and for outputting data to the user.

Taking the terminal device 2600 as a mobile phone as an example, when the terminal device 2600 is powered on, the processor 2620 may read the software program in the storage unit, interpret and execute the instruction of the software program, and process data of the software program. When data needs to be transmitted wirelessly, the processor 2620 performs baseband processing on the data to be transmitted and outputs a baseband signal to the control circuit, and the control circuit 2610 performs radio frequency processing on the baseband signal and transmits the radio frequency signal to the outside in the form of electromagnetic waves through the antenna 2640. When data is transmitted to the terminal device 2600, the control circuit 2610 receives a radio frequency signal through the antenna 2640, converts the radio frequency signal into a baseband signal, and outputs the baseband signal to the processor 2620, and the processor 2620 converts the baseband signal into data and processes the data.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that fig. 26 shows only one memory and processor for ease of illustration. In some embodiments, terminal device 2600 may include multiple processors and memories. The memory may also be referred to as a storage medium or a storage device, and the like, which is not limited in this respect in the embodiment of the present invention.

As an alternative implementation manner, the processor may include a baseband processor and a central processing unit, the baseband processor is mainly used for processing the communication protocol and the communication data, and the central processing unit is mainly used for controlling the whole terminal device 2600, executing the software program, and processing the data of the software program. The processor in fig. 26 integrates the functions of the baseband processor and the central processing unit, and those skilled in the art will understand that the baseband processor and the central processing unit may be independent processors, and are interconnected through a bus or the like. Terminal device 2600 may include multiple baseband processors to accommodate different network formats, terminal device 2600 may include multiple central processors to enhance its processing capabilities, and various components of terminal device 2600 may be connected by various buses. The baseband processor can also be expressed as a baseband processing circuit or a baseband processing chip. The central processing unit can also be expressed as a central processing circuit or a central processing chip. The function of processing the communication protocol and the communication data may be built in the processor, or may be stored in the storage unit in the form of a software program, and the software program is executed by the processor to realize the baseband processing function.

In one example, the antenna 2640 and the control circuit 2610 having the transceiving function can be regarded as the transceiving unit 2660 of the terminal device 2600, and the processor 2620 having the processing function can be regarded as the processing unit 2670 of the terminal device 2600. As shown in fig. 26, terminal device 2600 includes a transceiver 2660 and a processing unit 2670. The transceiver 2660 may also be referred to as a transceiver, a transceiving device, etc. Alternatively, a device used for implementing a receiving function in the transceiving unit 2660 may be regarded as a receiving unit, and a device used for implementing a transmitting function in the transceiving unit 2660 may be regarded as a transmitting unit, that is, the transceiving unit 2660 includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. For example, the receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, a receiving circuit, and the like, and the sending unit may be referred to as a transmitter, a transmitting circuit, and the like.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a network device, which can be used in the foregoing embodiments. The network device comprises means (means), units and/or circuits to implement the functionality of the network device as described in the embodiments shown in fig. 2, fig. 3, fig. 4, fig. 11 and/or fig. 22. For example, the network device includes a transceiver module for supporting the terminal device to implement a transceiver function, and a processing module for supporting the network device to process the signal.

Fig. 27 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 27, the network device 20 may be suitable for use in the systems shown in fig. 1, 2, 3, or 4. Network device 20 is, for example, network device 110 shown in fig. 1. The network device 20 may be configured to function as the network device in fig. 11 and/or fig. 22 with respect to a certain terminal device or devices. The network device includes: baseband device 201, rf device 202, antenna 203. In the uplink direction, rf apparatus 202 receives information transmitted by the terminal device through antenna 203, and transmits the information transmitted by the terminal device to baseband apparatus 201 for processing. In the downlink direction, the baseband device 201 processes the information of the terminal device and sends the information to the radio frequency device 202, and the radio frequency device 202 processes the information of the terminal device and sends the information to the terminal device through the antenna 203.

The baseband device 201 includes one or more processing units 2011, a storage unit 2012, and an interface 2013. Wherein the processing unit 2011 is configured to support the network device to perform the functions of the network device in the above method embodiments. The storage unit 2012 stores software programs and/or data. Interface 2013 is used for exchanging information with RF device 202 and includes interface circuitry for the input and output of information. In one implementation, the processing unit is an integrated circuit, such as one or more ASICs, or one or more DSPs, or one or more FPGAs, or a combination of these types of integrated circuits. These integrated circuits may be integrated together to form a chip. The memory unit 2012 and the processing unit 2011 may be located in the same chip, i.e., on-chip memory devices. Alternatively, the memory unit 2012 and the processing unit 2011 can be on a different chip than the processing unit 2011, i.e., an off-chip memory unit. The storage unit 2012 may be a single memory or a combination of multiple memories or storage elements.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the implementation. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described device embodiments are merely illustrative, for example, the division of the units is only one logical functional division, the units illustrated as separate components may or may not be physically separate, and the components displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiment.

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solutions of the present application or portions thereof that substantially contribute to the prior art may be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in the embodiments of the present application. The computer readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer. Taking this as an example but not limiting: a computer-readable medium may include a Random Access Memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an Electrically Erasable PROM (EEPROM), a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a universal serial bus flash disk (universal serial bus flash disk), a removable hard disk, or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage media, or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer. In addition, by way of illustration and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), synchlink DRAM (SLDRAM), or direct rambus RAM (DR RAM).

The above description is only for the specific implementation of the present application, but the scope of the embodiments of the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily conceive of the changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the embodiments of the present application, and all the changes or substitutions should be covered by the scope of the embodiments of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the embodiments of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method for configuring a control channel, comprising:

the method comprises the steps that network equipment sends a first instruction to terminal equipment, wherein the first instruction is used for indicating a first search space of the terminal equipment, the first instruction comprises a length N of a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) period of the first search space and a length L of PDCCH continuous monitoring time in the first search space, L is larger than or equal to 1, and N is larger than L;

and the network equipment sends a second instruction to the terminal equipment, wherein the second instruction is used for indicating the terminal equipment to activate the first search space.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first instruction is further configured to indicate M PDCCH monitoring clusters within the PDCCH period, wherein the M PDCCH monitoring clusters correspond to M sub-periods, a sum of lengths of the M sub-periods is equal to a length N of the PDCCH period, a length of a PDCCH continuous monitoring time of each of the M PDCCH monitoring clusters is L, and M is greater than 1.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the second instruction is further for indicating a slot offset O of the first search space _s1 Said slot offset O _s1 A PDCCH starting monitoring slot for determining the first search space.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first instruction is further configured to indicate (M-1) search spaces, wherein the (M-1) search spaces have a length N of a same PDCCH period as the first search space, wherein the (M-1) search spaces have a length L of a PDCCH monitoring duration within the same PDCCH period as the first search space, and wherein M is greater than 1;

the first instructions further comprise PDCCH monitoring symbols, the first search space and the (M-1) search spaces having the same PDCCH monitoring symbols;

the second instructions are further for instructing the terminal device to activate the (M-1) search spaces.

5. The method of claim 4,

the first instructions further indicate slot offsets for the first search space and the (M-1) search spaces, the M slot offset values being different from each other;

the second instructions are also for indicating a slot offset O of the first search space _s1 Said slot offset O _s1 A PDCCH starting monitoring slot for determining the first search space and the (M-1) search spaces.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1-5, further comprising:

and the network equipment sends a third instruction to the terminal equipment at the kth time slot in the L continuous monitoring time, wherein the third instruction is used for instructing the terminal equipment to stop detecting the PDCCH from the (k + 1) th time slot to the L time slot in the L continuous monitoring time.

7. A method for configuring a control channel, comprising:

the method comprises the steps that terminal equipment receives a first instruction from network equipment, wherein the first instruction is used for indicating a first search space of the terminal equipment, and the first instruction comprises the length N of a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) period of the first search space and the PDCCH continuous monitoring time L in the first search space, wherein L is greater than or equal to 1, and N is greater than L;

the terminal device receives a second instruction from the network device, wherein the second instruction is used for instructing the terminal device to activate the first search space;

and the terminal equipment detects the PDCCH in the PDCCH continuous monitoring time determined by the first search space based on the first instruction and the second instruction.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the first instruction is further configured to indicate M PDCCH monitoring clusters in the PDCCH period, where the M PDCCH monitoring clusters correspond to M sub-periods, a sum of lengths of the M sub-periods is equal to a length N of the PDCCH period, a PDCCH monitoring duration length of each of the M PDCCH monitoring clusters is L, and M is greater than 1;

and the terminal equipment detects the PDCCH in the PDCCH continuous monitoring time of the M PDCCH monitoring clusters in the first search space according to the first instruction and the second instruction.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the second instruction is further for indicating a slot offset O of the first search space _s1 Said slot offset O _s1 A PDCCH starting monitoring slot for determining the first search space.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the terminal device detects the PDCCH for the PDCCH monitoring duration of the M PDCCH monitoring clusters in the first search space according to the first instruction and the second instruction, and comprises:

the terminal equipment shifts according to the time slot O of the first search space _s1 And a sub-period of the PDCCH monitoring cluster, determining the PDCCH initial monitoring time slot;

and the terminal equipment monitors the PDCCH of the first search space from the PDCCH initial monitoring time slot.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the first instruction is further used to indicate (M-1) search spaces, the (M-1) search spaces having a length N of a same PDCCH period as the first search space, the (M-1) search spaces having a duration monitoring time L of a PDCCH within the same PDCCH period as the first search space, and wherein M is greater than 1;

the first instructions further include PDCCH monitoring symbols, the first search space and the (M-1) search spaces have the same PDCCH monitoring symbols;

the second instructions are further for instructing the terminal device to activate the (M-1) search spaces;

and the terminal equipment detects the PDCCH in the PDCCH continuous monitoring time determined by the first search space and the (M-1) search spaces according to the first instruction and the second instruction.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first instruction further indicates slot offsets for the first search space and the (M-1) search spaces, wherein the M slot offset values are different from each other;

the second instructions are also for indicating a slot offset O of the first search space _s1 Said slot offset O _s1 PDCCH initial monitoring also for determining the first search space and the (M-1) search spacesAnd measuring time slots.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the terminal device detects the PDCCH according to the first and second instructions for the PDCCH duration monitoring time determined in the first search space and the (M-1) search spaces, and comprises:

the terminal equipment shifts according to the time slot O of the first search space _s1 And time slot offsets of the M search spaces, determining PDCCH initial monitoring time slots of the first search space and the (M-1) search spaces;

the terminal device monitors the first search space and the (M-1) search spaces starting from the PDCCH initial monitoring slot.

14. The method according to any one of claims 7-13, further comprising:

the terminal device receives a third instruction from the network device at a kth time slot of the L continuous monitoring time periods, wherein the third instruction is used for instructing the terminal device to stop detecting the PDCCH in the L continuous monitoring time periods;

the terminal equipment stops detecting the PDCCH from the (k + 1) th time slot to the L time slot in the L continuous monitoring time periods based on the third instruction.

15. A communications device comprising means for performing a method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6 or means for performing a method as claimed in any one of claims 7 to 14.

16. A communication device comprising a processor and a memory; the memory for storing one or more computer programs that, when executed, cause the method of any of claims 1-6 to be performed, or cause the method of any of claims 7-14 to be performed.

17. A computer-readable storage medium, for storing a computer program which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1-6, or causes the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 7-14.

18. A computer program product, the computer program product comprising: computer program code for implementing the method according to any of claims 1-6 or for implementing the method according to any of claims 7-14 when said computer program code is run.